University Park offers complete education

LSCS gained Northwest Houston's vote in the May 2008 bond election by pledging to build a university center in the area to serve the 15,000 students who attend LSC-CyFair and the surrounding community.

However, LSC-University Park was never meant to take students from LSC-CyFair, but to be a separate entity for the growing Northwest Houston area.

Enrollment up

At the start of the year, the LSC portion of the campus, LSC-University Park, officially became the sixth college of the system, not just part of a center. Surpassing expectations, the school's spring enrollment has gone up by 10 percent more than last year at the same time, bringing the total to more than 4,000 LSC students at the location.

"We are still part of the college system but we are going to do things a little differently," Ardalan said. "This campus is built on innovation. We are trying things that we can either use at other campuses or things that are hot around the nation."

The four other colleges' combined enrollment went from about 2,000 students last spring to more than 3,000 during the comparable 2012 semester.

The Northwest Houston presence gives the schools a chance to reach new students. Texas Southern has seen a 100 percent growth in enrollment over the past three semesters, said Tau Kadhi, executive director and assistant dean of the Texas Southern University Northwest Campus.

UH-Northwest's student body has increased by more than 90 percent over the spring 2011 semester. It also added 55 percent more available courses at the campus.

Last year, UH-Northwest began to offer bachelor's degrees in psychology and mechanical engineering programs. In the fall, the school will launch its Bauer College of Business, providing a place for students to earn an MBA degree.

"Students that attend Lone Star College and reside in the northwest area no longer have to make the commute into Houston to gain access to educational opportunities," said Lonnie Howard, UH's executive director of university outreach. "They can do it in their own backyard."

UH built an additional 12,500 square feet at University Park to meet the growth.

Part of the increase in overall enrollment can be attributed to people's interest in attending community college, which is the fastest growing segment in education, Ardalan said.

"When the job market is bad our enrollment is up because people come back to school for a quick retooling. They want to learn something or earn a certificate to go back to work," Ardalan said. "No one is looking down on community colleges like they did in the past. They realize they can take their classes here close to home and take that credit to four-year universities and transfer at one-fifth of the cost."

Working relationship

LSC and the other schools have articulation agreements in place so when students start their college career they know exactly what classes are needed to meet certain requirements when they transfer.

"This is a very futuristic model in terms of several different university partners coming together to increase the education opportunities for people living in the northwest corridor," Howard said. "What is very noble about this relationship is that each university has decided to offer non-competing programs to make sure that we are not in competition with each other, but really serving the needs of our students."

Combined, the schools offer about 60 different degrees. Communication is key to coordinating the effort so that students get the most bang for their buck.

"It's a very good partnership. We share a lot of our information," Kadhi said. "We are all aware that each one of our success helps each other. It is a really good design. We all have different programs, so it is not a matter of competition."

Running the gamut, University Park added a charter high school last year called iSchool High. The goal is to give students in grades 9–12 the chance to take both high school and college courses.

"When making presentations on University Park across the country, we are calling it the 'college of the 21st century,'" Ardalan said. "I don't know how many places there are in the nation where you can get your GED and PhD in the same place. People are looking for a complete solution."