The following is a list of colleges and universities in Houston, located within the city limits.
Four separate and distinct state universities are located in Houston.
The University of Houston is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. The University of Houston–Clear Lake and the University of Houston–Downtown are stand-alone universities; they are not branch campuses of the University of Houston. Admission into each institution is separate, and each institution has distinct admission criteria and requirements.
Texas Southern University is the only independent state university in Houston and is one of the largest historically black universities in the U.S.
Institution | Founded | Enrollment (Fall 2012) | Campus acreage | Freshman acceptance rate [1] (Fall 2012) | Endowment | Research expenditures (FY 2011) | Carnegie classification [2] | U.S. News Ranking |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Houston 4800 Calhoun Rd | 1927 | 40,747 | 667 | 55.9% | $590 million [3] | $128 million [3] | Research (Very High) | National Universities, No. 171 (Tier 1) [4] |
University of Houston–Clear Lake 2700 Bay Area Blvd Partially in the Houston city limits [5] | 1971 | 8,153 | 524 | N/A | $22.6 million [6] | $2.2 million [6] | Master's (Large) | Regional Universities, Tier 2 [7] |
University of Houston–Downtown 1 Main St | 1974 | 13,916 | 20 | 90.3% | $34.7 million [8] | $1.5 million [8] | Baccalaureate– Diverse | Regional Colleges, Tier 2 [9] |
Texas Southern University 3100 Cleburne St | 1927 | 9,646 | 150 | 87.3% | $48.7 million [10] | N/A | Doctoral/ Research | National Universities, Tier 2 [11] |
Colleges in or nearby Houston
Other Community Colleges around Houston
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Rice University, formally William Marsh Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It sits on a 300-acre (120 ha) campus adjacent to the Houston Museum District and the Texas Medical Center.
Alcorn State University is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Texas Woman's University (TWU) is a public coeducational university in Denton, Texas, with two health science center-focused campuses in Dallas and Houston. While TWU has been fully co-educational since 1994, it is the largest state-supported university primarily for women in the United States. The university is part of the Texas Woman's University System. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 60 areas of study across six colleges.
Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Coast in Southeast Texas. With a population of 7,510,253 in 2023, Greater Houston is the second-most populous metropolitan area in Texas after the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
Strayer University is a private for-profit university headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1892 as Strayer's Business College and later became Strayer College, before being granted university status in 1998.
The Texas A&M University System is a state university system in Texas and is one of the state's seven independent university systems.
The University of Houston is a public research university in Houston, Texas. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1934, HJC was restructured as a four-year degree-granting institution and renamed as the University of Houston. In 1977, it became the founding member of the University of Houston System. Today, Houston is the fourth-largest university in Texas, awarding 11,156 degrees in 2023. As of 2024, it has a worldwide alumni base of 331,672.
Delaware State University is a privately governed, state-assisted historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four colleges and a diverse population of undergraduate and advanced-degree students. Delaware State University is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Texas Southern University is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The Texas State University System (TSUS) is a Public university system in Texas. It was created in 1911 to oversee the state's normal schools. It has since broadened its focus and comprises institutions of many different scopes.
Southern University and A&M College is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and the flagship institution of the Southern University System. Its campus encompasses 512 acres, with an agricultural experimental station on an additional 372-acre site, five miles north of the main campus on Scott's Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the northern section of Baton Rouge.
The University of Houston System is a public university system in the U.S. state of Texas, comprising four separate and distinct universities. It also owns and holds broadcasting licenses to a public television station (KUHT) and a public radio station (KUHF).
The University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) is a public university in Houston, Texas. Established in 1974 as University of Houston–Downtown College (UH–DC), it has a campus that spans 40 acres (0.16 km2) in Downtown Houston with a satellite location, UHD–Northwest, inside Lone Star College–University Park. The university is one of four institutions in the University of Houston System.
The University of Houston–Clear Lake (UHCL) is a public university in Pasadena and Houston in Texas, with branch campuses in Pearland and Texas Medical Center. It is part of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1971, UHCL had an enrollment of more than 9,000 students for fall 2019.
The University of Houston–Victoria (UHV) is a public university in Victoria, Texas. It is part of the University of Houston System. Its campus spans 20 acres (8.1 ha) in Victoria with a satellite location in Katy, Texas. Founded in 1971, UHV has an enrollment of over 4,300 students.
Prairie View A&M University is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learning in the state. It offers baccalaureate degrees in 50 academic majors, 37 master's degrees and four doctoral degree programs through eight colleges and the School of Architecture. PVAMU is the largest HBCU in the state of Texas and the third largest HBCU in the United States. PVAMU is a member of the Texas A&M University System and Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
This article is intended to give an overview of the education in Houston.
Texas has over 1,000 public school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas are independent, separate from any form of municipal or county government. School districts may cross city and county boundaries. Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) oversees these districts, providing supplemental funding, but its jurisdiction is limited mostly to intervening in poorly performing districts.
ECPI University, or East Coast Polytechnic Institute, is a private for-profit university based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It provides undergraduate- and graduate-level education in an accelerated format. ECPI University has six colleges with thirteen campus locations in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and online. Campuses are located in Virginia Beach, Newport News, Manassas, Richmond, Roanoke, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, Lake Mary, and San Antonio. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Univ of Houston Clear Lake- The university boundary is indicated on this map.