Howard University's five-year-old Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, originally funded in 1998, and the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) have joined to form a unique partnership to increase underrepresented minority student doctoral enrollment, graduation, and preparation of students for faculty careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. With a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the partnership represents the first major endeavor in graduate education to join a Research-Extensive Historically Black College and University (HBCU) with a Research-Intensive Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) to address the severe under representation of African Americans and Hispanics in STEM doctoral education. The combined strengths of the two institutions are a particular advantage of the partnership. This Alliance expands the range of doctoral disciplines offered by Howard's AGEP program to include the STEM disciplines of computer engineering, environmental science and engineering, and geological sciences offered at UTEP.

Over the past five years, 43 STEM doctoral students have completed Ph.D.s at Howard, and 29 more are currently in candidacy. Because AGEP began at Howard in 1998, these students will be completing degrees well within expected timetables. At UTEP, three underrepresented minority students have completed Ph.D.'s within the past five years.