Productivity Gains and CostEffectiveness in Higher Education

1
Productivity Gains and Cost-Effectiveness in
Higher Education

• Is There an Issue?
• What are Realistic Goals and Strategies for
  Achieving Them?

2
2006 SHEEO Annual Meeting

• Anchorage, Alaska
• July 21, 2006
• Robert C. Dickeson

3
Is There an Issue?

• Inattention to Cost-Effectiveness Affects
• Affordability of Higher Education
• Capacity to Deliver Higher Education
• Achievement of State Goals

4
Affordability

• Price increases outpace inflation and families
  ability-to-pay
• 400,000 students/year foreclosed by price (ACSFA)
• Full-time, low-income students dropped 36 percent
  in eight years (NPSAS)
• Financial aid mis-allocations

5
Capacity

• State-by-state differences
• Shortages exacerbated by traditional models
• Costs lengthen time-to-degree

6
State Goals

• Economic development
• Quality of life
• Foregone incomes/revenues
• Foregone opportunities

7
Realistic Goals Strategies?

• Goal 1 Cost of Attendance should be within reach
  of family ability to pay
• Goal 2 State institutional aid should be
  targeted to those most in need, not to those who
  are going anyway

8
Realistic Goals (Contd)

• Goal 3 Institutions should be freed from
  unnecessary policies, rules and regulations that
  impede efficiency
• Goal 4 Cost savings should be directed to
  reducing tuition

9
Realistic Goals (Contd)

• Goal 5 The preparation and readiness crisis
  should require new P-16 partnerships that work
• Goal 6 Institutional mission creep should be
  arrested and program resources reallocated

10
Realistic Goals (Contd)

• Goal 7 States and institutions should reduce or
  eliminate hidden costs
• Goal 8 States should reward success in, as well
  as access to, higher education

11
Realistic Strategies

• FIT THE SOLUTION TO THE
• COST DRIVER

12
Cost Driver Colleges are Labor-Intensive

• Strategies
• Require program prioritization
• Free institutions from costly state personnel
  systems
• Shift from tenure to multiple-year contracts

13
Cost Driver Heavy Regulatory Burden

• Strategies
• Cut needless regulations and reporting
  requirements
• Cut required state services that are not
  cost-effective

14
Cost Driver Specialized Accreditation

• Strategy
• Rein in unnecessary accreditation

15
Cost Driver Students and States Paying Twice

• Strategies
• Get control of remediation
• Fix accelerated learning policies
• Fix transfer-of-credit policies

16
Cost Driver One Price Fits All

• Strategy
• Initiate differential program pricing

17
Cost Driver Admitting Students Who Arent Ready

• Strategies
• Get serious about high school graduation
  requirements
• Admit only students who achieve New Basics
  Curriculum

18
Cost Driver Hidden Costs

• Strategies
• Establish minimum number of faculty to constitute
  a department
• Establish program outcome goals and eliminate
  programs that dont meet them
• Tighten up degree requirements

19
Hidden Costs (Contd)

• Stop abuse of released time
• Reduce or eliminate redundancy

20
Cost Driver Traditional Delivery Model

• Strategy
• Incentivize new models of delivery
• Western Governors University
• Rio Salado College
• Proprietary Models
• Distance Learning Options

21
Cost Driver Decisions Made in Isolation

• Strategy
• Align state decisions about fiscal policy,
  appropriations, tuition-setting and financial aid

22
Cost Driver Unrealistic Appropriations Due to
Structural Deficits

• Strategy
• Align state revenues with anticipated state needs

23
Robert C. Dickeson

• rdickeson_at_charter.net
• 970-586-9409