We read 4,864 job postings, plus a 481-posting top-up, from a hundred large employers in Texas. For the 4,327 postings where we could identify the courses, the typical posting mapped to a median of four, and fewer than eight. The employers were sampled, not ranked. A posting is not a hire.

Fewer than a third of the postings we read require a bachelor's outright; roughly half mention one. We read the full text of 11,710 postings in three sets: 4,466 from the hundred large employers in Texas, 5,179 from defense employers, and 2,065 from the four largest defense contractors. “Requires outright” means the posting asks for a bachelor's with no “preferred,” “or equivalent” or “in lieu of” nearby. For the hundred-employer set, two independent reading methods agree on the mention rate to within a fraction of a point. At the four largest defense contractors, about a third require one outright; at other defense employers, about a quarter.

In the postings we read, bachelor's-level postings (1,827) and graduate-level postings (532), out of 4,006, each mapped to about five courses; high-school-level postings to about three. A degree requirement on a posting does not name a course.

2014–15 bachelor's graduates, nationally: 5.7 years on average from first enrollment to degree. Elapsed time, not time enrolled. At four-year public institutions, 37.5 percent of graduates finished within four calendar years.

In each Texas university system, one or more institutions must offer competency-based bachelor's degrees in each high-demand field, starting with the 2026–27 school year.

About twenty competency-based bachelor's programs at six public institutions in Texas. Institutions not named.

The first NFL draft was held February 8, 1936, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia. A college draft has been held every year since.

A survey of more than 1,000 employers representing more than 14 million workers across 55 economies. AI and big data top the fastest-growing skills; alongside them, employers expect creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, curiosity and lifelong learning to keep rising in importance from 2025 to 2030.

“There are as many as 400,000 unfilled skilled trades jobs in the DIB today, and that number could grow to 2.5 million by 2030.”

The first 15 semester credit hours a returning student earns are not counted toward the excess-hours limit, if the student completed at least 50 hours before a break in enrollment of 24 months or more.

Texas “potential completers”: under 65, at least two years of full-time-equivalent progress in college, and no credential. 208,647 in the 2023 report cohort; 206,584 in the 2024 report.