On the surface, it might sound contradictory. Almost everyone agrees Texas
was the place to be during the recent financial market turmoil. Businesses in
Texas fared much better than almost every other state. There are many reasons
for this, most of which were established years if not decades ago. But will
that favored status continue to last?
Dr. David Daniel, President of UTD gave an interesting and important presentation
to the Metroplex Technology Business Council luncheon on June 4th. Dr. Daniel
emphasized why it is critically important several Texas Universities achieve
Tier One Research University status.
From my viewpoint, I think you should really call it the "brain drain
from Texas". The positive economic impact great research universities have
on local economies can be staggering. Without it, Texas and DFW will struggle
in this highly competitive race for talent.
Consider the following as detailed by Dr. Daniel:
• DFW is the only one of the top 10 most economically productive cities
in the U.S. without a major academic research university.
• Texas exports a net total of 7,800+ top high school students per year
to doctorial granting universities. We give our best and brightest up to universities
in other states. In 2010, of the three valedictorians from the Plano high schools,
two are going to Harvard the other to MIT. The valedictorian from Pierce High
School is going to Stanford.
• Texas has 8% of the U.S. population, yet we receive only 5% Federal R&D
funds (about $3 billion / year), and about 5% of U.S. based venture capital
investments. If we just received our population based share, that would increase
by another $3.7 billion / year. By the way, V.C. started companies generate
over 18% of all U.S. business revenues.
• Consider MIT's economic impact. In 1994, Bank Boston estimated MIT alumni
founded more than 4,000 companies that employed 1.1 million people and had annual
gross revenues of $232 billion. In 2005, the entire DFW Metroplex (which produces
one-third of the state's economic output) had a gross domestic product of $285
billion. Stated differently, one world class university can have an economic
impact equal to one of America's largest cities.
• I could keep going.
So what's a state to do? Texas is making some progress.
We passed Proposition Four in 2009. That provided $500 million of matching
state funds to be used by 7 Texas Universities towards R&D activities. But
more must be done at the local community and private donation level.
Below are two links with information presented to the State of Texas by Dr.
David Daniel, President of UTD regarding pursuit of tier one research university
status. I encourage you to read these. Both written in 2008, they are a great
blueprint for the focus and progress being made.
http://www.utdallas.edu/president/documents/executive-summary.pdf
Posted by Wayne Rampey, Vice President, The InSource Group
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