SHEEO partners with City University of New York’s ASAP|ACE National Replication Collaborative to launch inaugural College Completion Coalition Learning Community 

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Five states receive grants to join new learning community

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has kicked off a new learning community, including five $50,000 state grants, to help states replicate a proven model for student success. 

SHEEO and the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) | Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE) National Replication Collaborative are excited to announce their partnership to form a new learning community that supports replication of the CUNY ASAP|ACE model to increase community college completion rates at scale. With generous support from private funding, SHEEO and CUNY ASAP|ACE will partner with higher ed leaders in Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, and Washington as they create action plans to close equity gaps and increase college completion rates at their state’s community colleges. Each state system will receive planning grants as well as consultative strategic planning and technical assistance to create a sustainable model within each state’s unique context as they explore scaled replication for future replication program launches. 

The ASAP|ACE model was established by the CUNY system in 2007 and was designed to break down barriers to degree completion, particularly for CUNY’s low-income students. The model’s holistic, comprehensive suite of financial, academic, and personal services has served more than 88,000 CUNY students. 

The approach has been shown to more than double graduation rates for ASAP students over comparison groups in nearly every evaluation completed on the program. A cost-benefit study conducted by the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education (CBCSE) at Teachers College, Columbia University, found the program cost effective and that it realized a high return to taxpayers. Additionally, a recent analysis conducted by MDRC of the ASAP replications at three Ohio community colleges demonstrated increased earnings of program students by 11%, adding to the evidence base that the model has significant long-term impacts on participating students.  

“The replication collaborative supports our belief that scaling proven student success models across states is possible,” said Rob Anderson, president of SHEEO. “The CUNY ASAP model has already been replicated in several states, and we hope to give our members a chance to join this exciting effort.”

“CUNY has demonstrated that implementing the ASAP model at scale can meaningfully boost system-wide completion rates and produce notable efficiencies,” said Christine Brongniart, university executive director of CUNY ASAP|ACE. “We look forward to sharing what we’ve learned about scaled program implementation with other leaders who are committed to addressing equity gaps and transforming their state system’s completion culture.”

Much has been learned over the last several years about the most effective approaches to increasing attainment and their integral connection to state priorities. The College Completion Coalition Learning Community will provide a forum for states to reflect on what’s working, refine their strategies, and identify areas for cross-state collaboration. It will also help engage new policymakers and stakeholders in efforts to increase college completion and become more familiar with state college completion goals. A key objective of this project is to work with states to address racial equity gaps in attainment rates (with a focus on Black and Latinx students) through strategic scaling of the ASAP model. 

For additional information, visit the project website at https://sheeo.org/project/asapcommunity/. To learn more about the CUNY|ASAP National Replication Collaborative, visit www.cuny.edu/asapreplication.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org. 

About CUNY

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 275,000 students and awarding 55,000 degrees each year.

Study finds state protection policies need improvement to reduce student harms associated with college closures

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A new State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) report shows that the association between student protection authorization policies and enrollment and completions after college closure is not overwhelmingly positive. 

A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of Student Protection Authorization Policies on Student Outcomes after College Closure is the third and final report from a collaborative research team of SHEEO and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The research seeks to quantify the impacts of college closures on students’ subsequent postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes and to identify the policy levers states may have to support students who experience a closure. This final report incorporates the state authorization policy context to determine if policy interventions can improve the negative impacts of closures on students. It uses the treatment and control samples developed for the second report and adds a longitudinal dataset capturing state authorization policies related to student protections.

As outlined in the first report, A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Impacts of College Closures on Student Outcomes, more than 100,000 students experienced their institution closing without adequate notice or a teach-out plan from July 2004 to June 2020. As outlined in the second report, A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closure on Student Outcomes, the data show college closures have an overwhelmingly negative impact on students, with students 71.3% less likely to reenroll within one month and 50.1% less likely to earn a credential than students who did not experience a closure. This third report focuses on the post-closure student protection policies that aim to reduce the harms associated with closure: collection of tuition recovery funds, payment of surety bonds, preservation and dissemination of student records, and creation of teach-out plans. As part of consumer protection, many states have enacted a mix of these policies.

Collectively, these four policies can provide students with tuition refunds, completion or transfer opportunities, and access to transcripts, all of which can assist students in recovering from an institutional closure. Among the four policies examined, student records policies tied to closure were the most common form of student protection across all states that had any institutional closures between 2004 and 2020. During this time frame, the largest percentage of states had no tuition recovery policy (79.3%), no surety bond policy (43.9%), no teach-out plan policy (47.3%), or a student records policy tied to closure (45.5%). Additional findings include:

  • Tuition recovery and surety bond policies have no positive correlation with reenrollment within four months after closure.
  • Student records and teach-out plan policies have a strong positive correlation with reenrollment that lessens over time. 
  • Tuition recovery and surety bond polices have no consistent positive effects on credential completion, type of credential completed, or time to completion for students who experienced a closure. 
  • Student records and teach-out plan policies may have some positive effects on the type of credential completed and time to completion, but results are mixed. 
  • The most encouraging results indicate that students are more likely to immediately reenroll in states that have records retention and teach-out policies in place. Both policies are designed to ease the transfer process for students after a closure, and results suggest the presence of both policies is more effective than just one.

“These findings reinforce how disruptive institutional closures are for students and suggest that states should consider stronger consumer protection policies and procedures,” said SHEEO President Rob Anderson. 

As currently designed, surety bond and tuition recovery fund policies do not allow students to receive a refund and utilize a teach-out option. This policy design requires students to make a difficult decision between reenrolling at a teach-out institution or receiving a refund. In this regard, the student protection policies counteract each other (e.g., students can only pursue tuition reimbursement if a teach-out opportunity is not pursued).

Surety bond and tuition recovery fund policies are designed to reimburse students for harm caused by closing institutions and are not designed to help students reenroll let alone advance toward the completion of a credential. Similarly, records retention policies help ensure students have access to transcripts and other records that will help aid the transfer process to another institution. Once students have transferred and their previously earned credits have been accepted, records retention policies do little to promote completion.

State agencies of higher education and institutions can play a key role in helping to minimize the negative impacts on students due to college closures. Several policy implications were outlined in the report, including that states should provide greater oversight of teach-out institutions to ensure that they are financially viable, offer quality educational opportunities, and provide program alignment to prevent students from having to retake courses. While the results that show that the presence of a student records retention and teach-out policies led to a greater likelihood of reenrolling within four months, the other results suggest that the consumer protection policies could be improved to better promote reenrollment within one year to improve the likelihood of completion.

For additional data resources and to access all three reports and an interactive data visualization, visit the project website at  https://sheeo.org/project/college-closures/. 

This series of three publications examining the impacts of college closure on student outcomes is supported by Arnold Ventures.

SHEEO Announces Excellence Awards Recipients

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State higher education agencies and leadership recognized for dedication and innovation

Portland, OR – The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has announced the organization’s 2023 SHEEO Excellence Awards recipients. The awards recognize the leadership, dedication, and innovation of exceptional SHEEOs, agency staff, and agencies at a time when state postsecondary policy is increasingly linked to student success and, in turn, states’ economic and social prosperity.

  • The Exceptional Leader Award recipient is Michael P. Meotti, executive director of the Washington Student Achievement Council.
  • The Exceptional Agency Award recipient is the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
  • The David L. Wright Memorial Award recipient is Tracey Cook, chief fiscal officer, University System of Georgia.

Reflecting on the SHEEO Excellence Awards, Dr. Robert Anderson, president of SHEEO, said: “SHEEO is proud to acknowledge the dedication of all our state higher education executive officers, their agencies, and agency staff members. The hours worked, the ideas generated, and the tenacity demonstrated by these individuals and agencies to help address the needs of students and promote equitable educational outcomes are worthy of praise. We are honored to recognize the winners of this year’s SHEEO Excellence Awards.”

Exceptional Leader Award

The Exceptional Leader Award is presented to a current state higher education executive officer from a member agency who has shown exceptional leadership, a commitment to higher education, a contribution to the greater good, and service to the SHEEO Association within the last year.

This year’s recipient of the Exceptional Leader Award, Michael P. Meotti, is the executive director of the Washington Student Achievement Council. Meotti has extensive experience in higher education policy, finance, and innovation, dedicating his time and expertise in multiple states and for myriad organizations. Meotti became the executive director of WSAC in 2016. In this role, he works with partners across higher education, elected officials, employers, organized labor, and community-based groups to increase student access and success. Meotti previously served as commissioner of higher education in Connecticut and as executive vice president of the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education. He has shared his experience and leadership with others, serving two terms on SHEEO’s executive committee, and as commissioner of the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), where he also serves on the executive committee.

Under Meotti’s leadership, Washington developed the Regional Challenge Grant program to build partnerships between state and community leaders to increase postsecondary enrollment and credential completion for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, English language learners, students with disabilities, and foster and homeless youth. 

Meotti oversaw implementation and expansion of the Washington College Grant (WA Grant), considered a model for need-based state financial aid programs and named the most equity-focused free college program in the country by the Education Trust. Meotti also helped lead efforts to secure a highly competitive federal grant through the Good Jobs Challenge to establish the Washington Jobs Initiative, which aims to support Washington’s robust career-connected learning system, increase diversity and equitable outcomes in the workforce, and connect Washingtonians to good-paying, high-demand jobs.

“It has been a privilege to work alongside Michael Meotti during the past four years to find innovative solutions to increase the number of Washington adults obtaining some type of postsecondary credential to improve their chances for success in a rapidly changing economic environment,” said Jeff Vincent, WSAC chair. “The launch of Washington’s Regional Challenge Grant initiative during the last 12 months is an excellent example of Mike’s leadership in this area. I want to personally congratulate Mike for receiving this well-deserved recognition by his peers.”  

According to Paul Francis, WSAC member and executive director of the State Board for Community & Technical Colleges, “Mike’s accomplishments at the Washington Student Achievement Council include successfully advocating for full funding for the Washington College Grant—one of the most generous state aid programs in the nation. He has also successfully built bridges with K-12, higher education, nonprofit, and community leaders across the state to pilot new regional partnerships to grow college enrollment. And he was a valuable partner in working alongside college and university leaders, the governor’s office, and state agencies to ensure that teaching and learning continued during the COVID-19 pandemic while retaining our focus on health and safety. Congratulations, Mike, on this well-deserved recognition!”

Exceptional Agency Award

The Exceptional Agency Award is presented to a member agency whose innovative actions, policies, or practices advanced student success in their state; which displayed exceptional governance practices; overcame exceptional challenges; or displayed other meritorious attributes within the last year. SHEEO has selected the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as this year’s awardee.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is leading the way in advancing higher education and driving the state’s economic competitiveness. Texas is one of a few states that immediately prioritized federal stimulus funds through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund for higher education. GEER investments in Texas totaled more than $360 million dollars, demonstrating an investment that is critical to Texas’ economic recovery and future competitiveness.

Texas recently unveiled its ambitious strategic plan for higher education, Building a Talent Strong Texas. This comprehensive plan expands on the successes of its previous initiative, 60x30TX, by emphasizing the value of credentials earned and providing greater opportunities for Texans, including working adults, to earn degrees, certificates, and other credentials that lead to meaningful careers. Texas is the first state to condition its postsecondary completion goals on the value of credentials earned, and the plan focuses on three measurable, data-driven goals: 1) attainment of postsecondary credentials; 2) postsecondary credentials of value; and 3) research, development, and innovation. 

Over the past several years, Texas has undergone significant modernization efforts to redesign its data infrastructure so it is modern, flexible, and meets the needs of users. Texas has also built a world-class advising tool to help students access and persist through higher education with technology-enabled college and career planning. The My Texas Future tool makes the planning experience more personal, meaningful, and connects to students’ goals and aspirations—all while rooting their decisions in practical information like real-world earnings and regional job demand. 

During the 88th Texas legislative session, THECB was able to secure a once-in-a-generation commitment to higher education, with legislative investments of more than $5 billion over the next two years. As part of this historic session for higher education, Texas celebrated the signing of House Bill 8 (HB 8) into law, which codified an innovative new model to fund community colleges in Texas. The new model moves to an outcomes-based approach and rewards colleges for awarding degrees, certificates, and other credentials of value.

These outstanding achievements have positioned the THECB as a role model among SHEEO agencies.

“Texas is raising the bar for higher education opportunities, and I am proud we are being recognized with SHEEO’s Exceptional Agency Award,” said Commissioner for Higher Education Dr. Harrison Keller. “Texas is making a strong commitment—in policy and funding—to help more Texans achieve credentials of value so they can contribute to, participate in, and benefit from our world-class economy. I’m proud of the achievements we’ve made over the past several years and look forward to what we will continue to accomplish.”

“The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is honored to have received this special recognition from SHEEO,” said Chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Dr. Fred Farias. “Texas has set out to achieve bold new goals in Building a Talent Strong Texas and in doing so, more Texans will be able to achieve greater economic mobility and prosperity.”

David L. Wright Memorial Award

The David L. Wright Memorial Award is named in honor of the late David Wright, an esteemed colleague and leader in state higher education who served in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, and the Florida Governing Board. This award recognizes a current SHEEO agency staff member from a member agency who embodies the exceptional commitment, work ethic, and ethical practices of David Wright and made outstanding contributions to their agency. This year’s David L. Wright Memorial Award is presented to Tracey Cook, chief fiscal officer for the University System of Georgia and treasurer to the system’s governing Boarding of Regents. 

Cook brings extensive experience and effective leadership to her position, including over 30 years in higher education. Prior to joining USG, she worked as a senior auditor for KPMG and as controller at Morehouse College in Atlanta. She joined USG’s Atlanta Metropolitan State College before taking a job with the fiscal affairs team in USG’s University System Office. In total, she’s been with USG for 20 years. 

Cook and her team within the Office of Fiscal Affairs make the USG’s mission of knowledge possible. They impact Georgia students by prioritizing the goal to keep the state’s 26 public colleges and universities affordable and obtainable. This includes working with an over $10 billion annual budget to support more than 48,000 faculty and staff and more than 334,000 students across the state. Under her guidance, the system has consistently maintained strong financial ratings while staying focused on student success. The board for the 2023-34 academic year has approved a budget that for the sixth time in eight years includes no tuition increase—a record that makes Georgia the seventh lowest in the nation among its peers for tuition and fees.

Just one example demonstrating Cook’s work ethic is that, despite her own workload to accomplish day-to-day responsibilities, she goes above and beyond to support the chief business officers at all the institutions. Tracey has been instrumental in helping institutional staff navigate the university system. 

Sonny Perdue, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, shared, “Tracey is always the first to credit her team for any success, but I don’t think anyone is more deserving of this award. Her leadership has kept USG moving forward no matter the challenges, and her humility and positivity have made working with her a pleasure. While her smile and laugh make her fun to work with, she gives 100% and that shows in the success of our institutions and students.”

Learn more about SHEEO Excellence Awards, including past winners at https://sheeo.org/membership/sheeo-awards/. 

New SHEEO reports examine state policies on tuition, fees, and financial assistance for undocumented students and on COVID-19 effects

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To accompany the main report on SHEEO’s 2022 Tuition, Fees and Financial Assistance survey released last week, SHEEO produced two additional reports from the survey responses. One report details COVID-19 pandemic effects on state tuition, fees, and financial assistance policies, and the other examines policies for undocumented students.

Survey responses show that the pandemic impacted several areas of state policy—most significantly through increased funding to state budgets. States received federal funding that they allocated directly to higher education. Some states used these federal funds to protect existing state financial aid programs and initiatives, while others used funding to pilot new programs. Nearly all states were able to keep their state financial aid programs intact during the pandemic, with 14 states reporting new or expanded state programs as part of their pandemic response. 

“Only two states (Nevada and Oregon) reported a reduction in their state financial aid budgets due to COVID-19,” said Jessica Colorado, SHEEO policy analyst. 

When asked if COVID-19 led to any short-term programs or policies that impacted tuition and fees at institutions, particularly for undergraduate students, 10 states reported changes in both sectors, one state reported changes in the two-year sector, and four states in the four-year sector. A greater number of states (58%) froze or limited tuition during the second year of the pandemic compared to the first (48%).

The survey also included several questions about how state policies treat and affect undocumented students at public institutions in each state. At the federal level, most students born outside of the U.S. are ineligible for federal financial aid. These same students are often also ineligible for state financial aid programs, many of which model their eligibility requirements on those established at the federal level. In addition to their ineligibility for federal and most state financial aid, undocumented students confront a variety of policies regulating eligibility for in-state tuition at state postsecondary institutions. 

“State policies regulating undocumented students’ eligibility for in-state tuition at public two- and four-year institutions and their access to state grant aid vary widely across the U.S.,” said Rachel Burns, SHEEO senior policy analyst. 

State tuition policies for undocumented students are also not consistent across sectors. While states are equally likely to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students in the two- and four-year sectors (26% and 25%, respectively), they are more likely to require undocumented students in the four-year sector to pay out-of-state tuition or to mandate that students meet certain requirements (e.g., as undocumented, non-resident, or international students) for in-state tuition. In contrast, the two-year sector is more likely to have no statewide policy.

In addition to tuition policies, states also develop policies regulating undocumented students’ eligibility for state grant aid. Forty-nine percent of states report that undocumented students are ineligible for state financial aid due to state policies, while 12% block student eligibility based on federal policies. Because state policies vary in how undocumented students are classified (e.g., as undocumented, non-resident, or international students), some undocumented students may be eligible for tuition waivers granted to non-resident or international students.

All three State Tuition, Fees, and Financial Assistance Policies 2022 reports, as well as the survey instrument, the longitudinal dataset, and technical report, can be found online at https://sheeo.org/project/tuition-and-fee-survey/.

Sakshee Chawla joins SHEEO as senior policy analyst

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomed Sakshee Chawla this week as a new senior policy analyst. Sakshee is working out of SHEEO’s Washington, D.C., office.

In her role, Sakshee will partner with state higher education leaders to replicate and scale the City University of New York’s (CUNY) nationally recognized Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE) support program to increase college completion rates. She will also work to promote improved student wellness through the development and implementation of state- and system-wide policies that advance student mental health care. Her research interests include student success, educational equity, and upward mobility. 

Before joining SHEEO, Sakshee served as a research analyst and project manager on the Workforce of the Future (WoF) initiative at Brookings. She studied the demographic changes in the composition of labor unions and sought to understand whether unionization status is associated with worker happiness, job satisfaction, and productivity. As a part of her capstone project and thesis in graduate school, Sakshee partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to assess the effect of the state’s test-optional admissions policies in reducing barriers and improving access to higher education, particularly for disadvantaged students. Sakshee’s work examining the vital role of community colleges in fostering economic growth was recently published in the book America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity. Before graduate school, Sakshee worked at EAB where she studied topics including developmental education, faculty and staff mental health, social and emotional learning, as well as student learning loss. 

Sakshee holds a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in economics and psychology from Smith College. 

Learn more about our team at https://sheeo.org/about/sheeo-staff/.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org. 

SHEEO report examines tuition, fees, and financial assistance policies among states

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Only six states report a unified strategy for addressing affordability

Many states believe tuition should be as low as possible but leave institutions in control of creating their own tuition-setting philosophy. Most states also do not have a statewide unified strategy for addressing affordability and don’t have a formalized relationship between financial aid and tuition-setting policies. State higher education offices shared these and many other insights into tuition, fees, and financial assistance policies in a survey distributed last year. 

SHEEO’s new Tuition, Fees and Financial Assistance Report provides details on policies and practices that differ between two-year and four-year public institutions. It also includes specific information about the tuition-setting process for graduate students, details on state policies for setting nonresident student tuition, and more information on state policies regarding student fees. While the report does not provide actual tuition costs, it focuses on the policies that establish and regulate tuition, fees, and financial aid amounts. This year’s report provides more enhanced data to include years in which each state had tuition freezes and/or limitations, the institution types subjected to those limits, and the amount of those limits. A new longitudinal dataset, with survey responses back to 1979, has also been published to give a more historical view of these policies.

Across sectors, nearly half of survey respondents indicated that their tuition-setting philosophy was not formalized in statute or policy. The remaining states either formalize their tuition-setting process in legislative statute or through board rule or policy. 

While tuition philosophy often guides a state’s process and intention in setting tuition rates, other factors, such as state budget levels, cost of instruction, and inflation, may take a controlling lead in influencing the tuition-setting process. In both sectors, the factors with the most influence were: ensuring affordability for students, the level of state general fund appropriations, and the cost of instruction. In most states, boards of individual institutions or the system-level coordinating/governing agency is primarily responsible for setting undergraduate tuition rates. 

However, states have recently increased their efforts to control public institutions’ tuition rate increases. In the last five years, 40% of states placed restrictions on tuition rate increases in the two-year sector, and 60% of states placed a limit or a freeze on four-year tuition rate increases. This is up from 54% of states between 2014-2017 and 43% of states between 2010-2014. Most tuition limits capped tuition rate increases between 2-4%.

“When states were asked to clarify the relationship between tuition and financial aid policies in their state, the most common response was that there was no relationship between the two,” said Jessica Colorado, SHEEO policy analyst. Thirty-four percent of the two-year sector and 31% of the four-year sector said there is no intentional relationship between tuition and financial aid policies in their state. For states with an intentional relationship between tuition and financial aid, the most common relationship was to have low tuition and high aid (19% of two-year, and 14% of four-year). Of the states who selected a relationship, 63% of two-year and 72% of four-year respondents reported that the relationship between tuition and financial aid was more of an informal policy or goal.

States have considered, proposed, or adopted several strategies to improve student affordability in the last five years. When compared to the last iteration of this survey, more states have recently implemented or adopted free college or promise programs for the two-year sector (20) than what was reported in the 2017 survey (3). Following free college programs, the next most common programs states adopted were statewide financial literacy programs (15), which include FAFSA completion programs, and open educational resource programs (15). Two states adopted debt-free college, a twist on the traditional free college program.

While affordability has become an increasingly influential factor in tuition-setting policies for state policymakers, codified strategies on affordability that consider tuition rates and availability of financial aid together are absent in most states. Only 10% (six states) of respondents reported a statewide, unified strategy for addressing affordability, down from 32% in the 2017 survey.

A key recommendation from the report is for states to take a multiyear, transparent approach to tuition policy. States should allow for longer-term, multiyear strategies around tuition rate setting. In many states, limitations on how much tuition can increase vary from year to year. One year, the legislature may limit tuition increases to an inflationary adjustment, followed the next year by a freeze on the allowable rate increase.

“In this environment, there is little incentive for institutions and systems to raise tuition to an amount below the allowed limit in a single year since they can’t anticipate what the future will allow,” said Rob Anderson, SHEEO president. 

A more rational approach would provide allowable increases for three to five years and be based on state revenue projections and policy direction from the state with respect to expected higher education funding for institutions and state financial aid. This would allow for better planning by institutions and create a more transparent environment for the students and families who ultimately must pay the tuition costs.

The full State Tuition, Fees, and Financial Assistance Policies 2022 report, survey instrument, the longitudinal dataset, and technical report can be found online at https://sheeo.org/project/tuition-and-fee-survey/. Additional reports, which focus on changes states made to tuition policy following the COVID-19 pandemic and tuition policy for undocumented students, will be released in the coming weeks.

SHEEO welcomes Kristine and Pearson as state policy interns

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The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) welcomes Kristine Jan Cruz Espinoza and Pearson Brown as state policy interns. 

During her internship at SHEEO, Kristine will work on the state higher education finance (SHEF) project, assist with data collection on federal grant funds to Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), and help construct an MSI funding project dataset.

Kristine is a Ph.D. student studying higher education and completing a graduate certificate in program evaluation and assessment at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Her research interests include race-based higher education policies, currently focusing on Minority-Serving Institutions and racial data classification. Kristine most recently worked as a graduate assistant for a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education HSI grant-funded professional development program. She also serves on UNLV’s MSI Student Council, which involves undergraduate and graduate students in decision-making around campuswide MSI efforts. Prior to doctoral study, Kristine worked full time as a student affairs officer in the UCLA Asian American Studies Department. Kristine attended Long Beach City College, transferring to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and anthropology, and a master’s of education in educational administration.

During his time at SHEEO, Pearson will work on the state higher education finance (SHEF) project, modeling a federal free-college program, and assist with the FASFA simplification project. 

Pearson is a Ph.D. student in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia with research interests in funding sources for higher education and state appropriation processes. Pearson also serves as a graduate assistant for the University System of Georgia’s Division of Research and Policy Analysis. He has recently worked on projects pertaining to gateway course completion, ways course outcomes differ across modalities, and graduates’ earnings. Pearson earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in professional selling from Baylor University and his master’s of education in college student affairs administration from the University of Georgia. 

Learn more about our team at https://sheeo.org/about/sheeo-staff/.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org. 

For the first time, state funding to public colleges exceeds per-student funding levels seen prior to the Great Recession

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The latest State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report finds that in 2022, public higher education appropriations increased 4.9% beyond inflation, surpassing pre-recession per-student funding levels for the first time since 2008. The SHEF report also finds that fiscal year 2022 saw the second largest public FTE enrollment decline since the start of the SHEF dataset in 1980, and tuition revenue continued to decline.

After a short recession in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, historical patterns following economic recessions reversed in 2021 and 2022. Instead of the typical decrease in state funding following a recession, education appropriations increased for the 10th straight year, rising $932 per full-time equivalent (FTE) from 2020 to 2022. Inflation-adjusted education appropriations per FTE were greater than pre-recession funding levels in 2008, by 3.1% or $304 per FTE. The increase in education appropriations per FTE can be attributed to three notable trends:  increasing state commitments to higher education funding, a sharp decline in FTE enrollment, and generous federal stimulus funding.[1]

Additional findings from this year’s report include:

  • Public FTE enrollment has now declined for 11 straight years to 10.31 million in 2022, down 2.5% since 2021, and down 11.6% from an enrollment peak in 2011. Public institutions have lost almost all the additional FTE enrollment they gained following the Great Recession, and in 2022, FTE enrollment was just 0.4% higher than in 2008. The two-year sector generally had larger enrollment declines across states, taking a larger hit than four-year enrollment in 31 states.
  • State and local government funding for higher education totaled $120.7 billion in fiscal year 2022, including more than $2.5 billion (2.1%) in federal stimulus funding. Inflation-adjusted federal stimulus funding for higher education declined $1.4 billion or 36.4% from fiscal year 2021. Two-year institutions received $55 per FTE in federal stimulus for public operating in 2022, while four-year institutions received $169 per FTE.
  • Education appropriations increased 3.8% at two-year institutions and 4.0% at four-year institutions. Without federal stimulus funding directed by states to higher education and without the decline in FTE enrollment, inflation-adjusted education appropriations still would have increased 3.6% from 2021 and 2.9% from 2020. Although national-level education appropriations have recovered to 2008 levels, 28 states continue funding higher education at a lower level than prior to the Great Recession.
  • State public financial aid per FTE increased 2.0% from 2021 to 2022 and reached an all-time high of $990 per FTE enrolled student. These funds made up 9.7% of all education appropriations. Financial aid per FTE increased in 29 states and Washington, D.C., in the last year. More than twice the amount of state financial aid was awarded to students attending four-year institutions than students at two-year institutions.
  • Inflation-adjusted net tuition revenue decreased 1.0% in 2022 and has declined 5.8% in the last five years. Public institutions received $7,244 per FTE in net tuition and fee revenue in 2022. Public institutions in more than half of all states collected less tuition revenue than they did five years ago. Decreases in net tuition revenue are largely due to increases in state financial aid and minimal tuition rate growth (lower than the rate of inflation). Declines in the last year were significantly worse in the two-year sector: Net tuition revenue per FTE declined 7.4% at two- year institutions and only 0.2% at four-year institutions. Despite recent declines, since 1980, net tuition revenue per FTE has increased in every state and has increased by more than 100% in 44 states.
  • Total education revenue increased 2.4% from 2021 to 2022, reaching an all-time high of $17,393 per FTE. However, total education revenue is at an all-time high in only 11 states, and many institutions are not at an all-time high for total education revenue. Additionally, the increase in total education revenue since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is explained by federal stimulus funding and the enrollment decline. Excluding federal stimulus funding, and if enrollment had held constant at 2020 levels, total education revenue per FTE would have declined 2.4% from 2020 to 2022. 
  • The student share decreased from 43.1% in 2021 to 41.7% in 2022, and for the first time since 2016, the student tuition and fees funding public higher education comprised less than 50% of total revenues in more than half of all states and Washington, D.C., even after excluding federal stimulus funding. Continued increases in education appropriations and declines in net tuition revenue have reduced the proportion of total revenue financed by students. As states are faced with fewer federal stimulus dollars amidst increasing concerns about student affordability and student loan debt, states must make conscious efforts to continue decreasing the portion of public higher education funded by students and families.

As these findings demonstrate, fiscal year 2022 defied several long-term trends in higher education finance and showed growth in education appropriations. The continued decline in net tuition revenue puts greater pressure on states to not cut funding to public higher education in the coming years. When federal stimulus funds run out, states will face difficult budgetary decisions, and higher education may face cuts in some states.

SHEEO President Robert E. Anderson shared, “We’re pleased to see additional increases in state support for higher education, demonstrating a commitment in many states to fund their public institutions. While we see per-student funding levels come back to pre-Great Recession levels, there is still a long way to go in helping students access and succeed in higher education. The student share continues to draw concerns, and we hope these data help states see areas of improvement and continued opportunities of support for students.”

The SHEF report broadly addresses the wide variation in how states fund public higher education. However, state-specific context is incredibly important when discussing higher education finance trends. “The trends detailed in the SHEF report reflect national and state averages, but there are almost always outliers in every trend. Even within states, there can be wide variation in the enrollment and revenue patterns at each institution,” said Kelsey Kunkle, policy analyst at SHEEO and primary author of the report. “We know that state funding and institutional revenue impact student outcomes, and the negative impacts of low and unequal institutional revenues disproportionately affect students of color and low-income students.”

The full SHEF report paints a more complete picture of differences in public higher education finance across states.

Explore the SHEF website to read the full report and customize the interactive data visualizations. The SHEF website also includes individual state profiles, an additional report on state effort and capacity to fund higher education, and data resources exploring additional higher education finance topics like student residency, performance-based funding, and capital appropriations.

 

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org.

Media Contact

Jessica Duren, Strategic Communications Director, jduren@sheeo.org

[1] Federal stimulus funding allocated to states due to the COVID-19 pandemic is included in education appropriations and total education revenue throughout the SHEF report. Federal stimulus funding contributed to the education appropriations increase in two ways. First, federal funds that protected state revenues and covered additional costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession reduced the need to redirect funds from higher education to other budget areas during the pandemic. Second, federal funds given to states and used for higher education operations boosted education operating appropriations.

SHEEO Announces Promotion of Klein and Weeden to Position of Associate Vice President

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) today announces the promotion of Carrie Klein and Dustin Weeden to the position of associate vice president. Both Klein and Weeden have served SHEEO as senior policy analysts.

Klein joined SHEEO’s Washington, D.C. office in May 2021. She leads SHEEO’s Strong Foundations survey and reporting project, through which she advances SHEEO’s efforts to promote effective use of state postsecondary data resources and P20W connections. Building on prior postsecondary institutional experience and analytics research, Dr. Klein develops productive relationships with partner organizations and provides relevant content expertise and technical assistance to state agency research and data policymakers to improve state and student outcomes.

Weeden joined SHEEO in October 2017, working out of SHEEO’s Boulder, Colorado, office. He leads SHEEO’s research and policy analysis related to state authorization and college affordability.Weeden currently leads efforts directed at helping states prepare for implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act, and spearheads SHEEO’s focus on improving state consumer protection policies. 

“Both of these team members have done excellent work, taking on increased responsibilities and embodying leadership traits that help advance the work of SHEEO among our member organizations,” said Rob Anderson, SHEEO president. “We are excited to recognize their efforts publicly and look forward to seeing their continued growth.”

Learn more about our team at https://sheeo.org/about/sheeo-staff/.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org. 

Study finds students experiencing college closures are 50% less likely to earn a credential

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BOULDER, CO – A new report shows college closures have an overwhelmingly negative impact on students, with students 71.3% less likely to reenroll within one month and 50.1% less likely to earn a credential than students who did not experience a closure. 

A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Causal Effects of College Closure on Student Outcomes is the second of three reports seeking to quantify the impacts of college closures on students’ postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes. From a collaborative research team at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center, these reports are also meant to identify ways states can support students who experience a closure through various policy levers. 

In order to explore the causal effects of college closures on student outcomes, SHEEO looked at a combined dataset of enrollment and credential completion records for 143,215 students who experienced a closure at 467 institutions of higher education between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2020, and 1,295,773 matched control students enrolled in 467 matched institutions who did not experience a closure. By looking at a matched sample of students, SHEEO explored the direction and strength of the associations between closure and student outcomes such as enrollment, persistence, and completion. As outlined in the first report, A Dream Derailed? Investigating the Impacts of College Closures on Student Outcomes, more than 100,000 students experienced their institution closing without adequate notice or a teach-out plan from July 2004 to June 2020. 

“The research from this report shows that when schools close, the impacts are potentially life-altering, with most students choosing not to reenroll right away and half as likely to earn a credential than students who did not experience a closure,” said SHEEO President Rob Anderson. 

Research found that students who experience a closure are less likely to reenroll and are more likely to switch to a shorter-term credential than the one they were pursuing at the time of closure. Students are also less likely to earn any credential post-closure and take longer to complete a credential compared to students who did not experience a closure. 

  • Students who experienced a closure were 71.3% less likely to be enrolled after one month and 63.3% less likely to be enrolled after four months than students who did not experience a closure.
  • Students who experienced a closure were 50.1% less likely to complete a credential than students who did not experience a closure.
  • Students who experienced a closure were 19.9% more likely to complete a shorter-term credential than the credential they were pursuing at the time of closure than students who did not experience a closure.

Unfortunately, these negative impacts are most pronounced for students of color, students enrolled in certificate programs, and students enrolled in the for-profit sector. These students are also the most likely to experience an institutional closure, particularly abrupt closures that occur with little warning or time for students to prepare.  

State agencies of higher education and institutions can play a key role in helping to minimize the negative impacts on students due to college closures. Several policy implications were outlined in the report, including simplifying the transfer process for students of closed schools, offering extra supports like transfer counseling and orientation, and creating policies requiring institutions to submit and implement contingency plans in the event of closure. 

This series of three publications examining the impacts of college closure on student outcomes is supported by Arnold Ventures.

Learn more about our work on college closures at https://sheeo.org/project/college-closures/.

About SHEEO

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. For more information, visit sheeo.org.