UTEP Plans to Award Nearly $3 Million in Mining Engineering Scholarships Every Year – The University of Texas at El Paso
MinerAlert
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EL PASO, Texas (Aug. 1, 2025) — Students enrolling in The University of Texas at El Paso’s proposed mining engineering program will be eligible for nearly $3 million in scholarships that will be awarded annually, once the program reaches full capacity. UTEP President Heather Wilson announced the scholarships at a special event today at which The University of Texas System Chancellor also thanked state legislators for their leadership and support of the new program.
Students are expected to start classes in the mining program in Fall 2027. The B.S. in Mining Engineering has been approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and is pending approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, UTEP’s primary accreditor. Upon its launch, UTEP’s program will be the only mining engineering program in Texas.
“Our mining program will graduate well prepared engineers who can find valuable minerals, get them out of the ground, and restore the land when the mining is done,” said Wilson. “We are grateful for those who have provided for the renewal of mining engineering at UTEP.”
At the event, the UT System and UTEP thanked the Texas Legislature and the El Paso delegation for their support of a $20 million allocation in startup funding for UTEP’s mining program through the General Appropriations Act. The $20 million follows other major contributions to the program, including a previously announced $20 million from the UT System Board of Regents and $7 million from industry leader Freeport-McMoRan.
Speaking at the event was UT System Interim Chancellor John M. Zerwas, M.D., who was named by the Board of Regents as the sole finalist for the chancellorship last month. This was Zerwas’ first visit to UTEP in his new role. Zerwas praised El Paso legislators for their support of UTEP.
“Developing a workforce that is prepared to solve the problems confronting our state and nation is a core part of the UT System mission. Mining is a $10 billion industry in Texas and we need the good engineers UTEP will provide,” said Zerwas. “I particularly want to thank Senator César Blanco, House Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Representative Mary González, Representative Joe Moody, Representative Eddie Morales Jr., Representative Vincent Perez and Representative Claudia Ordaz for their support of mining engineering and of UTEP more broadly.”
UTEP was founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy and last offered a mining engineering degree in 1964. The relaunched program will position El Paso and the Paso del Norte region as a national leader in this critical industry. Last year, U.S. universities graduated only 312 mining engineers. An estimated 500 job openings nationwide are projected annually over the next decade. The relaunch of UTEP’s mining engineering program will help close this gap, with the program projected to produce up to 100 mining engineers each year once fully established.
Learn more at utep.edu/mining.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 25,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on August 01, 2025 at 12:00 AM | Originally published August 01, 2025
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
