Role and Scope

Texas Woman’s University is a doctoral research public university, primarily for women, offering baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degree programs. A teaching and research institution, the University emphasizes the liberal arts and sciences and specialized or professional studies. Texas Woman’s University is the largest university primarily for women in the United States.

The University is committed to creating a campus environment which empowers students of different ages, social status, and ethnicity to obtain the essential knowledge, skills, independence, and confidence needed to enhance their prospects of success. Students are provided numerous opportunities to express their points of view, to test ideas, to make decisions, and to succeed as leaders.

The University offers high quality education in the liberal arts and sciences and professional studies. The University also conducts research to enhance the progress and welfare of the people of Texas, the nation and the world in a time of rapid technological and social change. Texas Woman’s University serves as a source of knowledge and as a depository of information about women and their contributions to the history and advancement of the state of Texas, the nation, and the world.

Health-related studies and graduate education are integral to the mission of Texas Woman’s University. Texas Woman’s University has for many years been a regional and national leader in offering nursing and health science programs. These programs have evolved, as knowledge and technology in the health sciences have changed, to meet diverse health care needs. Texas Woman’s University continues as one of the largest providers of nursing and allied health professionals in the state and one of the largest in the nation. The University offers co-educational opportunities for study at the undergraduate or graduate level.

Doctoral programs are offered in allied health sciences, education, family sciences, kinesiology, nursing, and selected areas of the arts, humanities, and natural and social sciences.

Texas Woman’s University, with its main campus in Denton and two health science centers in Dallas and Houston, serves not only the north central region, but also the entire state of Texas. The T. Boone Pickens Institute of Health Sciences - Dallas Center, located in the Southwestern Medical District, offers academic programs in a variety of health science fields to serve this major area of Texas. The Houston Center, located in the Texas Medical Center, provides an excellent setting for students of health science and related fields. The graduate programs in health care administration, nursing, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, and physical therapy offered in Houston are in the vanguard of graduate-level, professional health education in the Southwest.

The University provides many special opportunities for its students, including independent study, clinical education, and practical work experience. Worthy of special note are large and diverse cooperative education, practica and internship programs which integrate classroom study with planned and supervised work experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Texas Woman’s University was a pioneer in preparing women to pursue careers in such fields as allied health, librarianship, nursing, nutrition, social work, and teaching. As other opportunities have become available, the University has made a special commitment to attract women to study in mathematics, the natural and physical sciences, and business. Undergraduate and selected graduate programs are offered to increase the participation of women in fields in which women have been historically under represented.

Texas Woman’s University educates women to excel and to assume leadership roles in both traditional and nontraditional endeavors. The training of women as leaders and decision makers is crucial to the progress of women and society. The University seeks to provide an academic and social climate for women to develop and use their leadership skills to serve society. Through work with campus and student organizations, as well as through involvement in institutional governance, Texas Woman’s University affords students formal and informal opportunities to become leaders.

Texas Woman’s University occupies a special niche in public higher education in Texas as an institution, primarily for women, which offers a broad range of baccalaureate programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional fields; graduate programs which emphasize the health sciences, human services professions, as well as selected areas of arts and sciences; and a campus environment which cultivates leaders. It conducts basic and applied research with special focus on interdisciplinary work in education, nutrition, health and natural sciences, women’s studies, and family sciences.