UT Tyler Announces New Honors College
Sixth college within UT System is projected to reach 300 students by fall 2025
TYLER (February 13, 2023) – The University of Texas at Tyler has announced the successful transition of its Honor Program to a new Honors College. Honors programing, which began in 2009 with an inaugural cohort of 20 students, has grown to about 200 students and is projected to reach 300 students by fall 2025.
Dr. Paul Streufert, UT Tyler associate professor and founding director of the former Honors Program, has been appointed inaugural dean-elect for the new college. UT Tyler’s Honors College is the sixth within the UT System.
“I would like to thank Dr. Streufert for his incredible leadership as we move forward to grow our honors education and start an official Honors College, which will be comprised of some of the best and brightest students here at UT Tyler,” said UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, FACP.
The Honors College provides specialized content and programming for high-achieving and intellectually curious students at UT Tyler. The college emphasizes small, unique courses with engaged faculty and rigorous undergraduate research. To join, qualifying students must be incoming freshmen with a 3.75 or higher high school GPA. Honors professors are selected UT Tyler faculty who are active scholars in their respective fields and have demonstrated teaching excellence.
“The new UT Tyler Honors College will help recruit more high-achieving students and engage more faculty in honors education at our institution,” said Dr. Amir Mirmiran, UT Tyler provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “The greater visibility of the new college, in turn, will also help our graduates to better serve East Texas and beyond.”
UT Tyler students who complete the Honors College will earn a special Honors designation on their final transcript. This distinction will reflect each student’s enriched studies and accomplishments as a UT Tyler undergraduate. Because of their diverse and enhanced collegiate experience, graduates of the Honors College are among the most sought-after by employers and graduate schools.
“We are so excited to have the opportunity to grow and reach more students in our community,” said Streufert. “Over the past 14 years, as the Honors Program, we have helped curious students explore ideas and live the life of the mind. With our Honors College, we hope to continue this work, reaching many more students through our faculty and staff, our co-curricular programming and our commitment to student research and scholarship.”
All Honors Program students are now members of the Honors College, and next year’s recruited class will be the first to join the college as incoming freshmen, Streufert added.
For more information, visit uttyler.edu/honors/ or contact Streufert at pstreufert@uttyler.edu.
With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. UT Tyler recently merged with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (now known as UT Tyler Health Science Center). Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center (HSC) and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.