Texas State continues to meet R1 research institution requirements, with three new doctoral programs now accepting students.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education defines R1 institutions as having high research activity, spending at least $50 million annually and graduating 70 doctoral students a year for three consecutive years. Texas State is set to achieve this status by 2027.
Vice President for Research Shreekanth Mandayam said Texas State is expected to reach $180 million in research expenditures and 80 doctoral graduates in the fiscal year 2025. Texas State is set to achieve R1 status by 2027.
“We have double the number of Ph.D programs,” Mandayam said. “We invested an additional $50 million in additional Ph.D programs in science and engineering, mainly, which is where graduation rates are typically higher than other disciplines.”
Three doctoral programs in electrical engineering, mathematics and mechanical and manufacturing engineering began enrolling its first students in fall 2025.
According to Mandayam, there are “Run to R1” doctoral scholarships and Doctoral Research Assistantships (DRA) tuition waivers to keep students on track to graduation.
“For those students in assistantship, I’m giving them an additional tuition scholarship so that they don’t have to pay tuition from their stipend that they’re already getting, which is what they used to do earlier,” Mandayam said.
Dean of the Graduate College Andrea Golato said doctoral students can receive a tuition waiver only if they hold a research assistantship and their graduate advisor has funding from an external grant.
According to the Associate Vice Provost for Curriculum and Academic Programs Jeff Housman, for the first five years after a doctoral program is approved, the curriculum office has to conduct annual reports to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The reports focus on anticipated enrollment, services provided and student support.
“In general, I think we’d like to see an average of three years for completion,” Housman said. “We’d like to see students complete those degrees and have a really good return on investment.”
Golato said the average time for a student to complete a doctoral program is three to five years at Texas State; however, it varies due to the doctoral program and background education.
However, according to Coursera, doctoral students take an average of seven years to complete their degree after beginning graduate school, and about five years after starting their doctoral program.
“While many Ph.D programs are designed to be finished in four or five years, the average completion time is much longer when you factor in the time it takes to research and write a dissertation,” Coursera’s staff wrote in its article.
Golato said doctoral students completing their program in three years “would be a very rigorous timeline.”
Golato continued, stating doctoral students can finish their degree in three years if the student already holds a master’s degree and was a full-time student.
“If you were entering [Ph.D programs] with a master’s degree, they have between 54 and 60 credit hours that the student needs to complete, if you are entering with a bachelor’s degree, there is additional coursework of usually a year and a half to go,” Golato said.
According to Texas State Financial Aid and Scholarships, doctoral students need to be full-time students, which is nine credit hours, that count toward their degree, in order to receive the most financial aid and the tuition waiver.
“I just started [my PhD program] last fall. It’s been going, I shouldn’t say great, because it’s completely a new experience,” Doctoral Instructional Assistant, Md Khairul Azman said. “… so all the research courseworks and as well as the DA duties, it’s been piling up the last two months … it’s been difficult.”
Azman said he is a first-year Ph.D computer science student and hopes to finish in four and a half years.
Houseman said before any doctoral program is proposed, the provost’s office conducts a job market analysis to determine the demand and salary outlook for those credentials.
Texas State University has access to the Texas University Fund (TUF), which Mandayam said allows for $60-$70 million a year to be invested in research.
Mandayam said Texas State is investing TUF in two ways: people and places.
“Which means we want to recruit the best faculty in the country in the world to come to Texas State. We want to recruit the best students in our graduate and undergraduate programs out here,” Mandayam said. “So it really is investing in the people who do the research. Secondly, the infrastructure for the research, the labs, the equipment, the facilities, and the support personnel.”
Mandayam said the four main investment areas include: water resources, semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence and dementia and Alzheimer’s research.
“We are shortly starting a series of town halls that invite faculty and students from across the university, where we can discuss how we are going to grow and excel in these areas,” Mandayam said.
In the fiscal year 2024, Texas State reached the R1 criteria with $165 million in research expenditure and 71 doctoral graduates.
There are 16 universities in Texas that have reached R1 status, according to the THECB.
Texas State University’s Strategic Plan for Research states Texas State plans on submitting proposals for new doctoral programs on a yearly basis to the THECB.
