The University of Houston System is a public university system in Texas, comprising four separate and distinct universities. It also owns and holds broadcasting licenses to a public television station (KUHT) and a public radio station (KUHF). The fourth-largest university system in Texas, the UH System has more than 70,000 students and 495,000 alumni from the four distinct universities. Its flagship institution is the University of Houston, a comprehensive doctoral degree-granting research university of about 43,000 students. The economic impact of the UH System contributes over $3 billion annually to the Texas economy, while generating about 24,000 jobs. The administration is housed in the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, located on the campus of the University of Houston. The chancellor of the UH System is Renu Khator, who serves concurrently as president of the University of Houston. The System is governed by nine voting-member board of regents, appointed by the Governor of Texas. Component institutions The University of Houston System has four separate and distinct institutions; each institution is a stand-alone university and confers its own degrees. Its flagship institution is the University of Houston. The three other institutions in the System are universities; they are not branch campuses of the University of Houston. Admission into each institution is separate, and each institution has distinct admission criteria and requirements. History The University of Houston, founded in 1927, entered the state system of higher education in 1963. The evolvement of a University of Houston System came from a recommendation in May 1968 which called for the creation of a university near NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center to offer upper-division and graduate-level programs. By 1971, the 62nd Texas Legislature passed House Bill 199 authorizing the establishment of the University of Houston at Clear Lake City as a separate and distinct institution with the organization and control vested in the Board of Regents of the University of Houston. Recognizing the need for a university presence in Downtown Houston, the board of regents acquired the assets of South Texas Junior College on August 6, 1974 and opened the University of Houston–Downtown College (UH/DC) as a four-year institution under the organization and control of the University of Houston. By August 1979, it became a stand-alone university when the 66th Texas Legislature established UH/DC as a separate and distinct institution in the University of Houston System. The University of Houston System was created by statute on August 29,