Higher Ed Commission Adopts Degree, Funding Standards

August 10, 2012

News Release

Muncie, Ind. -- The Indiana Commission for Higher Education today adopted streamlined standards for the approval of new college degree programs and further refined the state’s performance funding formula for public colleges and universities. The actions took place at a Commission meeting held on the Ball State University campus.

"These actions reflect the Commission’s priority on increasing college completion, productivity and academic quality in Indiana,” said Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education. “Taken together, these strategies are intended to ensure that our colleges’ academic offerings are aligned with the needs of students and the state and that we’re providing funding incentives that increase the number of Hoosiers who complete college and do so on time.”

Ensuring Quality: New Degree Program Standards

The Commission adopted a refined set of criteria for approving new college degree programs. The new standards emphasize a clear rationale for the program relative to each institution’s mission, state need and student demand; the program’s anticipated cost and delivery method; and how academic quality and student learning outcomes will be measured among other factors.

Promoting Productivity: New Performance Funding Metrics

Acknowledged as a national leader in using performance-based funding to drive college completion and productivity, Indiana has continued to evolve its funding formula over the past few years. Last December, the Commission approved refined completion metrics in three main categories: completion, progress and productivity.

Action taken by the Commission today serves as a recommendation to the Indiana General Assembly as to how the total pool of performance funding dollars would be allocated across the various metrics.

As adopted by the Commission, more than half (55 percent) of performance dollars would be earned through increases in overall degree completion and on-time graduation rates. About a third (30 percent) of performance dollars would reward progress in student persistence rates and degrees earned by low-income students. The remaining performance dollars would reward increases in high-impact degrees earned in STEM-related fields (science, technology engineering and mathematics) and improvements on an institution-defined metric that was proposed by each college and approved by the Commission.

Reaching Higher, Achieving More

Lubbers noted that the newly approved policies align directly with the Commission’s Reaching Higher, Achieving More strategic plan. Reaching Higher, Achieving More aims to increase student success by creating more pathways for degree completion, safeguarding college affordability and ensuring academic quality at all levels of Indiana’s higher education system. Learn more at www.che.in.gov.

Source: Indiana Commission For Higher Education