(EL PASO) — On the West Texas stop of his Good for Texas Tour: Cybersecurity Edition, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today visited The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a national leader in cybersecurity education and research. 

“UTEP’s cybersecurity education and research programs, student recruitment efforts and cybersecurity center — combined with unique access to military research projects —have made this university a significant contributor to the nation’s cybersecurity workforce,” Hegar said. 

During his latest Good for Texas Tour, Hegar is sharing the results of a new Comptroller study detailing the threat cybercrimes pose to national, corporate and personal security. The study also explores how Texas colleges and universities are training a strong cybersecurity workforce to combat these ever-growing threats. He’s touring several Texas colleges and universities designated as Centers for Academic Excellence (CAE) by the National Security Agency (NSA). 

UTEP is one of only 21 universities designated as a CAE in two NSA focus areas: cyber defense and cyber operations. The university is home to a satellite campus as part of a cybersecurity-focused collaboration between UTEP and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), which is the U.S. Army’s central research laboratory. Since 2017, UTEP’s designation as part of the ARL-South initiative has allowed an exchange of staff between ARL and UTEP, providing ARL internship opportunities for UTEP students. 

UTEP also has a scholarship program, S-STEM, to increase enrollment and diversity in its cybersecurity programs. S-STEM was funded with a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation in partnership with El Paso Community College, California State University and Merced College in California. 

UTEP’s cybersecurity graduates are highly recruited and quickly employed, earning average starting salaries of up to $110,000 annually; 100 percent of its students have jobs after graduation. The university is ranked third among “Best Online Cyber Security Degree Providers in Texas” by cybersecuritydegrees.com. 

For more information on the tour, including additional details about the UTEP’s effort to combat cybercrime, go to the Comptroller’s website.