Higher Education

The state of Mississippi has demonstrated its commitment to education and has received national recognition for introducing the first state-supported school for the handicapped, the first state college for women, the first coeducational college to grant degrees to women, and the oldest land-grant college for black Americans.Mississippi continues to lead the nation in its commitment to education, constantly upgrading the skills of teachers, familiarizing them with the latest national teaching techniques and trends, and maintaining competitive salary levels. This is why you can find some of the nation's finest educators in Mississippi.

Responding in 1987 to a national concern with the education of mathematics and science, the Mississippi legislature established the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. As the nation's fourth oldest school of its kind, the School for Math and Science is a residential high school for academically talented students. The students receive a college preparatory curriculum with emphasis in mathematics and science. Courses in the humanities, computer technology, foreign languages, art, and music provide a diverse academic environment.

The Mississippi Department of Education is presently building a statewide K through 12 telecommunications network. Currently 375 schools and 151 district offices are on the network or awaiting final installation. When fully deployed, approximately 900 schools will be online, providing educational entities with complete Internet/World Wide Web access and free e-mail accounts for teachers,students, and administrators.

Many of Mississippi's private schools see 100 percent of their graduates enter colleges and universities. At one such school, St. Andrew's in Jackson, ACT averages rank in the top 1 percent of all schools nationwide administering the test. In fact, two Jackson area private schools are included in 337 schools in the nation to be granted Cum Laude chapters, the scholastic equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.

Colleges

Mississippi is home to thirteen private and eight public colleges and universities. Each year, more than 120,000 students pursue a wide range of disciplines in Mississippi institutions of higher learning.

Mississippi State University (MSU) is among the nation's top institutions in research and development as ranked by the National Science Foundation. The school is home to one of only twenty-six National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers (NSF ERC) in the nation. The NSF ERC for Computational Field Simulation at Mississippi State is the only one of the NSF ERCs dedicated specifically to high performance computing. The school works with area manufacturers on energy conservation and cost reduction. In 1997, the Industrial Assessment Center was named one of the top four in the nation by its funding agency, the United States Department of Energy. In its five years of existence, the Center has made more than 700 recommendations for projected savings to industry of $5 million annually. Mississippi State's High Voltage Laboratory is the largest of its kind at an American university. The lab serves as a test facility for electric utility companies and conducts research on topics such as lightning protection for transmission lines.

The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) has been named a Carnegie II Research Institution, a designation which makes it one of the top 125 research institutions in the nation. Six federally funded facilities are based on campus in Oxford, Mississippi: The Jamie Whitten National Center for Physical Acoustics, the National Center for the Development of Natural Products, the National Food Service Management Institute, the Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, the Center for Water and Wetlands Resources, and the Marine Minerals Technology Center.

Mississippi University for Women (MUW), the first public college for women in America, was founded in 1884. For more than a century, the university has been recognized for quality programs and enrollment growth. Historically significant, the campus touts twenty-four buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The Mississippi University for Women is ranked the number one regional public liberal arts college in the south for the second consecutive year in U.S. News and World Report's 1999 "America's Best Colleges" guidebook. As the number one ranked regional public liberal arts college in the south for the last two years, the university also has the distinction of receiving best value among its 127 southern peer institutions for 1995 through 1997. MUW boasts a 12:1 student-to-facility ratio. Technologically up-to-date, the school links every dorm room and office to the Internet by way of a fiber optic backbone.It has been named #67 of the top 100 colleges in America by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

Millsaps College, founded in 1890, is an independent national liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Often rated as a best value and ranked in the top half of colleges and universities by U.S.News & World Report, Millsaps is located in Jackson, Mississippi, a metropolitan capital region of 425,000. Millsaps is cited as one of Loren Pope’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives, listed in the Princeton Review's Best Value Colleges as America's third best value, and highlighted in the emerging admissions resource, Colleges of Distinction. Millsaps College is the only Mississippi institution featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

Mississippi College ranks in the top tier of American universities according to U.S. News and World Report rankings. The 1999 edition of "America's Best Colleges" places the 173 year old Baptist university in the most prestigious group of southern universities. Mississippi College ranks 23rd in academic reputation among 123 southern institutions of higher learning. Founded in 1826, it boasts a distinguished history replete with many outstanding alumni. In fact, it ranks 19th in the nation in the number of graduates completing doctoral degrees – a testimony to its excellent academic reputation. U.S. News and World Report ranks MC in the “Top 10” category of best values and it has been selected for ten years to be on the Honor Roll of Character Building Institutions of the Templeton Foundation.

Jackson State University’s (JSU) School of Business is accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Only 25 percent of business schools, and only seven Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) nationwide hold this distinction. It is also the only HBCU offering an undergraduate degree in meteorology. Since 1976, Jackson State has maintained a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, the honor society that covers all disciplines. Only one other HBCU has a Phi Kappa Phi chapter. JSU produces more African-American Bachelor of Science graduates in computer science than any other university in the country.

University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) Polymer Science Research Center is an international leader in this field. The facility was built and equipped with funds through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Major research projects include a process to convert agricultural waste to ethanol. This will have significant impacts on agriculture and toward fulfilling the nation's fuel needs. Because of the increasing importance of this field of study, the center is expected to attract additional major research projects and high tech plastic related industries to the region.

The Mississippi Polymer Institute assists polymer related industries in Mississippi by sponsoring and/or promoting training programs, providing access to technical assistance, serving as a technical information clearinghouse, and opening routes to needed technologies.The institute works with these industries to improve access to the skilled workers and the polymer technology needed to prosper, grow, and create new, quality jobs.

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER

The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson is Mississippi's academic health sciences center. Established in 1955, it houses Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Health Related Professions, and Dentistry. The hospital and clinics facilitate graduate programs in the medical and clinical health sciences and teaching laboratories for educational programs. The 623-bed University Hospital is the Medical Center's teaching hospital. It serves as a diagnostic referral center for the entire state and offers many one-of-a-kind services available nowhere else in Mississippi: the highest level of prenatal care, a comprehensive children's hospital with its own cancer clinic and rehabilitation center, a full range of treatment for infertile couples including in-vitro fertilization, a heart-failure clinic and heart and kidney transplantation; electrophysiology for the treatment of rhythm disturbances in the heart and diagnostic treatment tools such as the transcranial Doppler, radiosurgery for the treatment of inoperable brain tumors and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

COMMUNITY AND JUNIOR COLLEGES

Mississippi was one of the first states to develop a statewide community college system. Today, this system has fifteen public community and junior colleges represented by thirty-six centers across the state to ensure that all Mississippians have access to the advantages of a college education. Programs offered at the community colleges include academic, technical, vocational, adult basic education, adult continuing education, general education development, job training partnership, and industry-related courses.

The widespread mission of the community college system is to provide academic (college transfer) programs that parallel the first two years of four-year college studies and to provide occupational programs preparing students for employment. Students benefit from programs in computer programming technology, business and office technology, and supervision and management technology. The community colleges offer extensive vocational programs to meet the hiring demands of Mississippi business and industry.

MISSISSIPPI’S INDUSTRIAL SERVICES BUREAU

The State of Mississippi provides custom-designed pre-employment training, post-employment training, and upgrade/re-training services for new, expanding or existing industries. These programs are available through the Industrial Services Bureau of the State Department of Education, in conjunction with the community/junior college system. The local industrial training coordinator in each community/junior college district is responsible for the administration, planning and coordination of all industrial training projects funded by the State Department of Education in that district.

The pre-employment training program can be conducted at the plant site, at the community/junior college campus, in a mobile unit or at another designated facility. Instructor costs are reimbursable and negotiated on an individual project basis. The length of pre-employment training is also negotiable, but typically conforms to the accepted training standard and practice of the industry. Costs for training materials in the pre-employment training program may also be reimbursed as a part of the negotiated agreement. Upon completion of the pre-employment training program, the employer has the option of choosing the candidates to be retained for employment. The costs of the training programs may vary depending upon the type of training requested. The cost of each program is negotiated based on required training needs of each industry. Custom-designed training manuals and multi-media training aids are available as a part of the Industrial Training Program.

TAX CREDITS FOR BASIC SKILLS TRAINING AND JOB RETRAINING

The Mississippi Legislature allows state income tax credits for businesses in Mississippi that provide basic skills training (job-related training in reading, writing, or math) or job re-training for their employees. Qualified businesses may include manufacturing, warehousing, distributing, processing, and refining. To be eligible for these tax credits, the training programs must be purchased from the local community/junior college and certified by the Mississippi Department of Education and the State Tax Commission. The tax credit per year is equal to twenty-five percent of the businesses' qualified training expenses.

OTHER TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMS

Technical and vocational training is available at eighty-six secondary vocational/technical centers statewide and at the thirty-six vocational/technical locations of the community college system.

Of special interest to industry is the Tech Prep Initiative, based on principles of integrating academic and vocational education and enhancing applied teaching strategies. By combining innovative teaching methods and high-tech equipment, challenging and exciting classrooms have emerged. A major factor in the success of Tech Prep is a strong partnership between community/junior colleges, business, industry and occupation specific work-site experience.