AUSTIN – The number of full-time employees has dropped at most agencies in the past decade, but it shot up by 26 percent at Texas' colleges and universities, according to a state audit released Monday.

Higher education officials attribute the increase to a jump in student enrollment of more than 20 percent during the same period, along with increased research, growing medical facilities and an ambitious effort to prepare Texas colleges for the future.

They and lawmakers say the big jump in employment is not only justifiable but also necessary.

"The quality of work done in the hospitals and clinical facilities, the libraries, the classrooms, the laboratories and the counseling offices is dependent of the quality of the people involved and the level of their workload," said Michael Warden, spokesman for the University of Texas Board of Regents.

"In the case of public higher education, we're not in it for profit. We're in it for our students and for the health of all Texans."

From 2005 to 2006, institutes of higher education hired more than five times as many new workers as all other state agencies combined.
Those agencies have increasingly been asked to reduce their workforces and outsource jobs.

Over the past decade, state employment excluding higher education went down 8.4 percent, according to the report from the Texas state auditor.
Governor's reaction

Gov. Rick Perry said through a spokesman that he's glad to hear state agencies are being "prudent about their hiring practices" and that the same scrutiny will be applied to higher education institutions in the upcoming Legislature, "as it is every session."

Spokesman Robert Black said the governor will announce major initiatives in budget transparency and accountability for the higher education community.
"It's a multifaceted issue, and the governor is ready to take a long, hard look at the way they do business and see if there's a way to do it better," Mr. Black said.
The state has set goals to accommodate an additional 500,000 college students by 2020.

A plan also calls for shortening the average time it takes students to graduate, increasing the number of professors – vs. teachers – at universities and boosting the number of students pursuing graduate degrees.

Texas A&M University is working to reduce the ratio of students to faculty members, hire more professors and take on more students each year.
This year's freshman class has 700 more students than last year, said Vice Provost William L. Perry. He said revenue generated from tuition increases since lawmakers deregulated college costs has helped pay for the new hires and other improvements.

More full-time employees signals a shift away from teaching assistants to full professors, it's also a sign that research and grant dollars are flowing and goals are being met, said Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, who is the budget liaison for the House Committee on Higher Education.

"I see the universities making the commitment that we asked them to make," Mr. Brown said.

Higher-ed figures

A full two-thirds of higher education employees can be found at schools in the Texas A&M and University of Texas systems.

Higher education faculty, staff members, support services and medical institution personnel are nearly 40 percent of all state workers, with more than 143,000 in 2006.

About 485,000 students are enrolled in Texas colleges and universities this year – up from 397,293 in 1996.

Staff writer Christy Hoppe contributed to this report.