Trends in Higher Education Performance

Joseph C. Burke, Director Higher Education Program, Rockefeller Institute of Government, in his article Trends in Higher Education Performance discusses reasons why performance measures/reporting fails and offers suggestions to both state and campus leaders on how to fix the problems.

The fundamental question facing parents today is will they be able to afford to send their children to college? While this may be an age old question, the recent decline in state funds, shifting of revenue to state security in wake of 911 and changing state government priorities have made higher education less affordable to many.

The support for public universities and colleges by policymakers has been declining for years (Knott & Payne, 2004), while the expected demand for higher education has been rising steadily. In the state of Maryland for example, the demand for higher education has shown a solid increase of 1 percent per year and is believe to continue this trend until 2011. The expected increase in the demand for higher education is repeating itself all over the United States and soon nearly every public institution will be force to turn students away due to capacity issues, unless there is adequate revenue provided to postsecondary public education. This is critically important to community colleges where their mission has been since its existence to offer open access to all, while providing quality and affordable education. As reality gets closer, state government officials across America are examining the priorities for their educational system and accessing how the need of the system currently aligns with state priorities.

Because of an economic downturn, a slower than expected economic recovery, combined with record deficits states have experienced sharp declines in revenue. Given the financial difficultly some states are facing there is little support for throwing good money after bad. It is this theory that prompted 44 states to require performance reports from their institutions of higher education (Burke, 2003). Performance reports are generated from the results of a set of performance measurements that are based on objectives and goals to be changed. These goals or objectives are more effective directing projects, programs and organizations, if they are linked with the organization’s strategic plan.

There are five aspects regarding performance measurements and ultimately the performance report that makes them flawed: (1) because they fail often to align performance indicators, (2) fixing accountability for results, (3) failing to reach academic departments, (4) missing a common core of indicators and (5) failing to use results (Burke, 2003).