AUSTIN, Texas -- The University of Texas at Austin in 2014 will limit automatic admission of freshmen to the top 7 percent of high school graduating classes.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams offers details in a Nov. 1 letter to high school administrators. UT in September notified the Texas Education Agency of its plans.

Texas law guarantees automatic admission to public universities for seniors graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. The 2009 Legislature modified the law only for UT-Austin.

UT last year began admitting the top 8 percent of such students. That adjusted to 9 percent this year, leading to a larger-than-usual freshman class of about 8,000.

UT spokesman Gary Susswein says automatic admissions for such freshmen will be 8 percent next year, then 7 percent for 2014.