California’s recently approved state budget increases funding for higher education, though the new funds will come with a performance condition that must be met.
As Inside Higher Ed reported, the University of California system will receive an additional $125.4 million under the new state budget for a total amount of $3.3 billion. However, the UC system will receive another $18.5 million if it enrolls 2,500 more in-state students and agrees to place a cap on out-of-state enrollment.
California State University system schools will receive $148.3 million more under the new budget but can receive an additional $12.5 million if they increase in-state enrollment by 5,194 students.
The performance metric is in response to criticism that in-state students are being edged out of California public universities by out-of-state students who pay higher tuition. As Higher Ed noted, many public school systems throughout the country have increased the number of admitted out-of-state students partially as a response to state budget cuts and funding decreases.
“The UC system will receive an additional $18.5 million if it enrolls 2,500 more in-state students.”
California’s higher education institutions also faced an extremely critical state audit earlier in the year. As The Sacramento Bee reported, the state audit determined that university officials had lowered admission standards for out-of-state students to increase their budgets. While the audit determined that the increase in out-of-state enrollment was a response to cuts to higher education made in the state budget, the audit also said administrators did little to reduce current spending in other areas, specifically noting administrative compensation.
Three UC school campuses – Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego – have already placed caps on out-on-state admissions. The California Assembly also passed a bill earlier this month that would set a limit on out-of-state admissions at all schools in the UC system, though this bill has not yet passed the Senate. Under the new state budget, the Department of Finance will need to confirm the increase in California resident enrollment by May 1, 2017, in order for the school systems to receive their funds.
While the budget did set a deadline, it did not establish a method for reaching the goal, leaving this up to university administrators to determine.
How Questica can help
Higher education institutions needing to meet critical performance goals tied to their funding will need advanced tools for tracking and managing their results. With Questica, university administrators will be able to establish and manage objectives while collecting financial and statistical data from multiple sources to effectively measure performance.
Questica provides a unique tool to easily track individual data values over defined periods and allows users to set up warnings or alerts when results are not meeting established objectives. Additionally, current spending can be tracked through Questica’s advanced budgeting tools, including salary and position tracking, to accurately model and forecast all costs associated with positions and employees.
Colleges and universities needing to meet performance goals, such as increasing in-state enrollment, should contact Questica to learn how advanced budgeting and performance software can aid in establishing and achieving the desired outcomes.
