Rising tuition rates and not enough top tier research universities are just some of the higher education problems that lawmakers will tackle in the coming legislative session. In the time since the last session ended in 2007, lawmakers have heard a growing chorus of concern about the state's colleges and universities.

"I just hope that people can understand the concerns of students," said University of Texas-Austin graduate student Stephanie Lane.

Lane is almost finished with her eight-year stint at UT, but still worries about rising tuition rates. The Associated Press found tuition at state universities has climbed an average of 53 percent since 2003. That's when the Legislature deregulated tuition, which allowed schools to set their own tuition rates.

"I think that it's alarming that it continues to go up and I think it's going to force people out of higher education at some point," Lane said.

That's not the only problem facing lawmakers charged with fixing higher education. Texas has only three top tier research universities, while a state of similar size, California, has nine.

"What those of us in Austin, Texas know is one of the great benefits of having a research university is that not only do they turn out the talented workforce, but they turn out industries, they turn out ideas that are then commercialized that are then part of the local economy," said State Senator Kirk Watson, D-Austin.

Watson filed legislation in the next session that would create a panel to study mechanisms to create more tier one universities. But some argue taking Texas schools to the top tier will cost more taxpayer money, in an budget climate that's tightening.

"We're going to have issues in the budget. But for too long, I think we have budgeted out of fear and not out of foresight," said Watson.

That may be the biggest test for lawmakers -- finding solutions to the state's higher education problems with less money, and little time.