Austin budgets $12M for Central Texas higher education partnerships

Austin will spend up to $12 million over the next five years to deepen ties with six Central Texas universities. The move, approved by City Council on September 11, shifts years of informal collaboration into formal partnerships with Austin Community College, Concordia University Texas, Huston-Tillotson University, St. Edward’s University, Texas State University, and The University of Texas at Austin.

Charles Purma III, a program and technology manager in the city’s budget office, said the framework is intended to move from case-by-case cooperation to a more consistent and equitable system.

The $12 million will not come from a single pool but rather through city departments drawing on existing or budgeted funds when new initiatives are developed. The agreements provide uniform processes and points of contact, which officials say will make it faster to launch programs ranging from workforce development and student engagement to technical advising and research.

Austin already has experience with a formal academic partnership through a 2020 agreement with UT. That collaboration has been valued at nearly $8.5 million, with another $1 million in projects in development. Past efforts have included traffic safety research under Vision Zero, water modeling for the Water Forward plan, and studies on digital equity.

Although specific projects under the new agreements have not yet been identified, officials say the city has already worked with the other universities in ways that hint at what’s to come. ACC has provided training programs in public safety and health. Concordia has supported internships for local high school students. Huston-Tillotson has partnered on housing and vaccine research. St. Edward’s has teamed with the city and Capital Metro on food access projects. Texas State has been involved in climate and public health service-learning programs.

City leaders expect the new framework to make these kinds of collaborations easier to track, expand, and coordinate. Each university’s unique expertise will help guide priorities: ACC is expected to focus on workforce development, Texas State on equity and pilot programs, and UT on areas such as waterways, economic mobility, and digital modeling.

Officials emphasized that while departments will continue to scope and fund individual projects, the agreements are designed to create a stronger, more connected system between the city and the region’s universities.