Western Governors University celebrates 15th anniversary of Texas partnership

Educators, public officials and graduates from across the state gathered in Austin on Oct. 27 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Western Governors University in Texas. The online university offers certificates, bachelor's and master's degrees that students can complete at their own pace.

About the organization

WGU was founded in 1997 by a bipartisan group of 19 governors in Western states to provide a more affordable and flexible option for higher education. In 2011, then-Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order making Texas an official WGU affiliate.

Since 2011, WGU in Texas has reached the following milestones:

• 38,691 total graduates 

• 45,545 degrees earned

• 24,087 students currently enrolled

• Over $34 million in scholarships awarded

• More than 87 statewide partnerships 

Of the students currently enrolled, 83% come from one or more underserved populations, 49% are first-generation college students and 23% are low-income.

Quote of note

"It was definitely one of those options that was super flexible, so that kind of fit my current schedule, especially since I work full time," 2026 WGU graduate Jacob Gomez said. "It was super convenient for me."

One more thing

Linda Battles, regional vice president for the South region, spoke about a partnership that WGU recently entered into with Anthropic. Anthropic is the AI company that created Claude, a series of large language models. Battles described AI as "the great equalizer."

"My vision of the future with AI, using it responsibly [and ethically], is to see that we have no more first-generation students, that we are able to reach those underserved populations and that we are scaling opportunity but not scaling costs," she said.