Foundation takes next step in national work with states to make higher education more efficient and cost effective. Lumina awards $9 million in grants to help seven states accelerate efforts to graduate more students within existing resources while ensuring quality
Indianapolis - Lumina Foundation for Education today announced major, multi-year investments in seven states’ efforts to deliver higher education in new ways and at lower expense to students and taxpayers. Over the next four years, Lumina will provide up to $9 million to this group of states, which during a year-long trial period demonstrated their commitment to educating many more students within existing resources. The states’ receipt of their full awards will be contingent upon their progress.
States receiving productivity grants for up to four years through Lumina’s College Productivity initiative—Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas—will work on everything from crafting approaches to reward students and institutions financially for course and degree completion to developing cost-effective models for serving greater numbers of students.
The grants were awarded based upon the degree of policy innovation, geographic and demographic diversity and the extent to which the states will address:
- tying public funding to increasing the overall number of college graduates,
- identifying instructional and operational efficiencies and cost savings that can be reinvested in better serving undergraduate students, and
- educating and training students in innovative and affordable ways.
“This round of grants represents Lumina’s next steps in advancing a national agenda for raising the level of productivity within higher education,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. “Momentum is building to serve greater numbers of students by maximizing the use of existing resources and ensuring quality. These grants will move us toward a deeper understanding of how we can implement policies and practices that elicit more value from our shared investment in higher education.”
The grants are part of Lumina’s effort to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025 to meet economic demand. The state investments are designed to stimulate changes in policy and practice that can be emulated. In an effort to engage more states, the Foundation also released Four Steps to Finishing First in Higher Education, a practical guide for state policymakers and higher education leaders. These documents describe steps states can take to achieve greater efficiency.
Lumina also will work with its bipartisan Washington, D.C.-based state policy firm, HCM Strategists, to form ad-hoc networks of states beyond those awarded grants to address topics such as incentive funding and to focus on questions such as how to encourage low-cost, high-quality models for serving many more students.
States awarded productivity grants are:
Texas: The state will work to revise its funding formula to reward course and degree completion. Texas also will focus on enhancing quality and simplifying student transfers by defining degree and course-level learning outcomes in specific degree programs. This work is intended to demonstrate that colleges and universities can save money and be rewarded for their increased cost effectiveness while boosting quality. (Up to $1.8 million)
Montana: The state will implement a virtual community college that packages degree programs and workforce training from campuses and delivers them statewide online. Montana also will revise its funding formula to reward institutions for student progress and for raising the overall percentage of state residents who are college graduates or have postsecondary credentials. (Up to $1.77 million)
Arizona: The state intends to create a new student-level funding model that rewards student progress and degree completion. The state also will expand its range of “no-frills” options for granting bachelor’s degrees that meet local needs. (Up to $1.5 million)
Tennessee: The state will work with its colleges and universities to implement model programs for re-enrolling and graduating adult students who left college without degrees but with sizable numbers of credits. Tennessee also will revise its funding model and incentive program for public institutions. (Up to $1.2 million)
Maryland: The state will launch an unprecedented statewide effort to redesign entry-level, large-lecture or “bottleneck” courses in public and private colleges and universities to serve more students at less expense, improve the quality of the learning experience and free resources to redesign additional courses. Maryland also will create an approach for identifying and advocating additional policy change that encourages degree completion at the lower per-student costs. (Up to $1 million)
Ohio: The state will aggressively consolidate “back-office” operations across campuses in an effort to realize hundreds of millions in savings that can be directed to graduating more students and holding tuition increases in check. (Up to $950,000)
Indiana: The state will focus on a four-year plan for educating and engaging legislators, trustees and local chambers of commerce to sustain the nation’s most extensive performance-funding model, adopted earlier this year. In coming months, Indiana also will begin building the analytical and policy base for achieving efficiencies in the academic operations of regional four-year campuses. (Up to $830,948)
About Lumina Foundation
Lumina Foundation for Education is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college — especially low-income students, students of color, first-generation students and adult learners. Our goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina pursues this goal in three ways: by identifying and supporting effective practice, through public policy advocacy, and by using our communications and convening power to build public will for change. For additional information about Productivity, visit Lumina’s Web site and www.collegeproductivity.org.
