Wright State University got its name and start 45 years ago with 5,000 students. But the school originally was formed three years earlier than that as a branch of Ohio State and Miami universities.

On Wednesday, the three institutions celebrated Wright State’s anniversary with a panel on the future of higher education with OSU President E. Gordon Gee and Miami President David Hodge.

“What we honor today is something that came from the real grassroots,” said Wright State President David Hopkins, who moderated the panel and has led the nearly 18,000-student university for seven years. “This institution was brought forth by the citizens of this region. They wanted a public university, four year, so that they could go after their dreams in higher education.”

“It just reminds me that we have arrived as a wonderful institution for the state, and to be colleagues with Ohio State and Miami. They gave birth to us, but now we are really equal collaborators with them in so many ways. We’re no longer this up-start institution. We’ve got students from 63 countries. We have students from every state in the United States,” he said.

Hopkins said the universities will be important to the state of Ohio in growing the economy, but the three presidents agreed that higher education now faces unprecedented challenges.

“These are the most challenging, most opportunistic and most involved times that I have seen,” Gee said of his 32 years in higher education. “The challenges for higher education, I think, are enormous. Today as we celebrate this hallmark of this great institution, we also need to think about the role that it will play and all of us will play in the future of this nation.”

Gee said student debt nationwide has now passed $1 trillion. Parents want to make sure higher education is affordable and universities are creating jobs and opportunities. Universities must be agile and partner with everyone, he said. Hodge said that in 1973, soon after Wright State got its start, only 28 percent of jobs nationwide required a college credential. By 2023, two-thirds of all jobs will require that education.

“That’s a pretty stunning figure and a challenge to us in higher education,” Hodge said.

“People look to Wright State to provide ideas and to provide the workforce that helps to propel the region forward,” Hodge said, also noting the university produces students who are engaged in their communities.

Wright State, once just consisting of one building, Allyn Hall, has grown in the last 45 years to two campuses totaling 730 acres and with more than 60 buildings. To date, Wright State has produced more than 100,000 graduates, according to the university.