The fastest-growing university in Texas is located in West Texas' booming oil field: The University of Texas of the Permian Basin has grown 75 percent from 2013 to 2018.
That's according to a Business Journals analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education.
Click through the slideshow at the top of the story to see the 30 fastest-growing universities in Texas ranked by percentage change in enrollment from 2013 to 2018.
Not surprisingly, most of the fastest-growing schools are also among the smallest, as any small changes in their enrollment numbers have larger impacts on percentage change. UT Permian Basin started with enrollment of 4,021 for fiscal year 2013 and added about 3,000 students for a total of 7,022 in fiscal year 2018.
However, Texas A&M University in College Station is the biggest outlier in that respect. It grew enrollment 34 percent from 50,627 in 2013 to 67,929 in 2018 and now is the largest school in the state. For comparison, enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin, the second-largest school in the sate, started at 52,186 in fiscal year 2013 and decreased 1 percent to 51,525 in 2018.
Locally, the University of Houston is the largest school, but Houston Baptist University saw the largest percentage increase. Prairie View A&M University and Rice University also grew enough over the five-year period to rank among the top 30 schools listed above.
Three local schools grew only 5 percent to 6 percent — Texas Southern University, Brazosport College and University of Houston-Clear Lake — which was not enough to make the top-30 list. Enrollment at the University of Houston-Downtown in 2018 was essentially the same as it was in 2013.
The University of St. Thomas was the only local school to see enrollment decrease — dropping 13 percent from 3,626 in 2013 to 3,168 in 2018. However, St. Thomas saw its largest freshman class in the 2018 fall semester, with 360 freshmen and 204 transfer students, and aims to grow to 5,000 undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students by 2023, President Richard Ludwick told the Houston Business Journal earlier this year. UST also plans to open a campus in Conroe.
Overall, 19 of the 67 Texas schools in the data collected by HBJ parent company American City Business Journals saw enrollment decline to remain unchanged over the five-year period.
