Missouri Passes Bill Ending U. Of Missouri's Exclusive PhD Authority

Forbes

14-05-2025

The Missouri General Assembly has passed a bill reducing the University of Missouri's exclusive ... More authority to grant PhD degrees.
The Missouri General Assembly has passed legislation that ends the University of Missouri's exclusive right to grant research doctoral degrees in the state, giving permission to Missouri State University to award PhD degrees in subjects other than engineering.
Under current Missouri law, the University of Missouri system with its four campuses in Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City and Rolla has been recognized as the state's only public research university with the authority to grant PhDs and other postgraduate professional degrees.
Earlier in this year's legislative session, Republican Senator Lincoln Hough from Springfield, the home of Missouri State University, had introduced Senate Bill 11, which would have repealed the University of Missouri's status as the sole public university that could grant research doctorates and first-professional degrees in fields like dentistry, law, medicine, optometry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.
Hough's bill also would have removed the requirement that engineering degrees could be conferred only by the University of Missouri or another public university in collaboration with it. A similar bill was proposed in the Missouri House by Rep. Melanie Stinnett.
The legislation that passed this week did not go so far as to repeal these restrictions. Instead, it granted an exception just for Missouri State University to 'have the power and authority to grant doctor of philosophy degrees in disciplines other than engineering and to grant bachelor of science degrees in veterinary technology.'
The final vehicle for the legislation — House Bill 419 — was originally introduced by state Rep. Don Mayhew (a Republican from Crocker), as a measure to give military personnel and their families in-state status for the purposes of tuition charges.
However, Hough added the MSU provision in the Senate, giving Missouri State University the right to offer PhDs, except in engineering fields. The House passed the Senate substitute for Mayhew's bill, which included other higher education amendments, by a vote of 149-7. It passed in the Senate by a margin of 27-4. It now goes to Governor Mike Kehoe for his consideration. (The same provision was also contained in Senate Bill 160, another higher education bill approved by the General Assembly.)
Tension between the University of Missouri, the state's flagship institution, and Missouri State University stretches back for decades and has focused on the educational footprint and identity of MSU.
Starting in the 1980s, what was then Southwest Missouri State University began to lobby the legislature for an expanded mission and name change. Those efforts were blocked by MU until 2005, when the Missouri General Assembly passed a bill that changed the name of Southwest Missouri State University to Missouri State University.
Governor Matt Blunt, a native of Springfield, signed that bill into law, but it came with strings attached — namely that MSU would not offer doctoral or engineering degrees on its own.
Since then, the two institutions have successfully partnered on joint degree programs. In 2006, the Missouri S&T-Missouri State University Cooperative Engineering Program was launched, allowing students in the Springfield area to earn bachelor's degrees initially in civil and electrical engineering, and later in mechanical engineering, from Missouri S&T in Rolla (in full disclosure, I was the president of Missouri State University who signed that agreement). Several years later, MSU teamed up with the University of Missouri at Kansas City to offer UKMC's PharmD program in Springfield.
Despite those agreements, MSU and other public universities in the Missouri have sought more autonomy in their ability to offer doctoral degrees.
In 2022, Missouri's Coordinating Board of Higher Education approved a new mission for Missouri State University that included conferring professional doctorates. However, the restriction on research doctorates and engineering programs remained in place.
Former MSU president Clif Smart, who retired in 2024, argued that Missouri was the only state that limited engineering programs to its flagship university, and that it's also the most restrictive state in terms of giving one public university system a monopoly over research doctorates.
As a result, Smart claimed that Missouri students often leave the state to study elsewhere, resulting in an avoidable brain drain and a hardship for area employers seeking to hire and retain workers with graduate credentials.
His successor at MSU, President Richard Williams, has continued a similar theme, testifying that Missouri State University needed more flexibility to address regional and statewide workforce needs. 'This is relieving restrictions so we can be nimble,' Williams testified to lawmakers.
As in years past, the two universities waged competing lobbying efforts over the latest turf battle. Advocates for ending the degree-granting restrictions claimed it was unfair for the state to grant the MU system full exclusivity over research doctorates degrees and also impose restrictive partnerships on other programs.
Defenders of UM System's exclusive doctoral degree authority included the University of Missouri Flagship Council, which argued that the change would stretch the state's resources too thin and would be costly to students who would likely see tuition increases as a result.
'The bottom line is that starting doctoral programs at public universities without research funding will need to be propped up with significant state support,' wrote Chuck Brazeale, chair of the Flagship Council's board of directors.
In the end, after conversations with MSU's Williams and MU President Mun Choi, a compromise was reached that did not completely end the University of Missouri's statewide control over doctoral degrees, but carved out a expanded role for Missouri State University instead.
"That's how this process is supposed to work,' Senator Hough told the Springfield Daily Citizen. 'Two sides are supposed to get together and work out differences and figure out a compromise. Now, did that bill pass as was filed by myself? No. Did Mizzou get everything that they wanted? No. Did I get everything that I wanted for Missouri State? No. Is it in a better place, and does it offer more educational opportunities in higher ed than previously? Yes. So all in all, I think it's a good step in the right direction.'