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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.

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