These are enrollments are for the Fall Semester 2012. Total enrollments for systems include extension and continuing education students. Founding dates are for the first year of classes. Systems and community college districts with multiple campuses listed are in boldface type.

Institutions of higher learning were established in Texas as early as the mid nineteenth century. Today, many of these institutions continue to thrive and raise the standards of Texas higher education, as well as propel forward student enrollment to levels never seen before.

For much of its 82 years, the Southwest Conference was the most tightly knit league in major college sports. Its excitement and energy generated from deep in the heart of Texas.

The two major university systems in Texas had slow and shaky beginnings.