Howdy and welcome!
When you join our family in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, you join a diverse community of renowned scholars in improving people’s lives worldwide.
We focus on five societal Grand Challenges: how to feed our world, enrich our youth, grow our economy, improve our health and protect our environment.
If you want to help solve these problems, we give you a huge range of options for research and study. We are one of the largest colleges for agriculture and life sciences in the nation, widely recognized as a leader in dozens of disciplines in science and education. Our 400+ world-class faculty work in 14 departments, and our 7000+ students choose from nearly 100 top-notch programs. We’re proud to be one of the best values in the nation for a college education.
As part of the Texas A&M AgriLife land-grant system, we partner with Texas’ premier research and service agencies — Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension — and with Texas A&M Forest Service and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. We work with universities, government organizations and industry groups around the world. We give you countless opportunities to study or work abroad. We collaborate on international programs with the Norman Borlaug Institute.
The discoveries we’ve shared have already made life better for millions. Our alumni are leaders in industry, business, government, and nonprofit groups around the world.
Whatever we do, we stay true to our roots. Agriculture is one of the founding pillars of Texas A&M. Over the years, all Texas A&M students have adopted our core values of respect, excellence, service, integrity, leadership and loyalty. They’re all proud to be Aggies!
Download our overview brochure to learn more about the college and our Grand Challenges.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean’s office is also a two-star certified member office with the Sustainable Office Certification program. The Sustainable Office Certification is a program implemented by the Texas A&M University Office of Sustainability. The certification program’s goal is to help make Texas A&M’s faculty and staff more aware of sustainable practices that can be easily incorporated into everyday life, while collectively reducing the consumption of TAMU. The Dean’s office continues to work to enhance their rating with this on-going certification process.
About Our Land-Grant Mission
Texas A&M is the designated land-grant institution for Texas. The land-grant college concept represents a dynamic and distinct educational experience because the research and work we do here builds tomorrow’s leaders and directly affects the public in Texas, the nation and the world. New knowledge brings new ideas and expanded opportunities, often followed by new milestones and advancements in the land-grant university experience.
In the late 1850s, Congressman Justin Smith Morrill envisioned universities that were accessible to all, including the working class. And unlike the higher-education institutions of his time, these universities would reach out to improve communities and make their research widely available. The Morrill Act has provided a broad segment of the population with a practical education that has direct relevance to their daily lives.
Below is a portion of the speech Morrill gave on the House floor in support of the bill in April 1858:
… shall we not have schools to teach men the way to feed, clothe, and enlighten the great brotherhood of man?
Farmers will not be cheated longer by unsustained speculations. The test of the field must follow and verify that of the laboratory. The half-bushel and the balance must prove the arithmetic. The result must support the theory. They want substance and not a shadow — bread and not a stone. They know well there is a vast force of agricultural labor hitherto misapplied, muscles that sow where they do not reap, and they demand light — demand to have their arms unpinioned! What has been an art merely to supply physical wants must become a science.
Signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, the Morrill Act fostered the land-grant mission, which has evolved to serve not only our nation but also the global population. And as that mission has evolved, we have revolutionized our own concept of what it means to be a land-grant university and are always planning for what lies ahead. The need for land-grant universities has never been greater. Currently, one-sixth of the world’s population suffers from chronic hunger. More than two billion people worldwide live in regions facing water scarcity. And global competition for natural resources is becoming fiercer.
We are a proud member of the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities and our programs benefit many, from individuals to the international community. Together, the College and agencies of Texas A&M AgriLife are making a powerful and profound impact on our state, our nation, and our world.
Our inspiration
In the words of President Lincoln, “the land-grant university system is being built on behalf of the people, who have invested in these public universities their hopes, their support, and their confidence.”
We are proud to say that we have a diverse and highly distinguished community of educators, scholars and scientists who call our college their own. Whether you are a student, staff or faculty member, we are here to assist you in achieving your goals.