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Monday, March 31, 2008
Master plan for Ohio colleges released
The 10-year master plan for Ohio’s public colleges and universities was delivered to Governor Ted Strickland on Monday that details strategies for the Governor’s mandate that Ohio’s colleges increase the number of Ohioans with degrees by 230,000 in the next decade.
The plan takes a consumer-friendly approach, saying the state will offer many educational options to students who can then choose the best programs at the best price to meet their needs.
One of the plan’s main goals is to make available high-quality associate and bachelor’s degree programs in core fields to students within 30 miles of their home, using the infrastructure of the state’s 47 community colleges and regional branch campuses. Community colleges will be linked through policies and a database that will enable each school to offer programs from the other schools. The first associates degree available to the entire state will be available this fall, Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut said in a press conference this morning in Columbus.
All colleges and universities will join the national Voluntary System of Accountability, a voluntary initiative for 4-year public colleges and universities to demonstrate public accountability by measuring students’ outcomes and making information about their institutions accessible, understandable and comparable to consumers. About 225 institutions around the country participate in the system.
Ohio’s institutions will make available to students and their families data regarding price, financial aid, degree programs, retention and graduation rates, campus safety, student satisfaction and student learning outcomes. Two-year institutions will participate in a similar national initiative for community colleges.
The information will be available in an “Ohio College Portrait,” which will show campuses’ progress in 20 performance metrics in real time on a “dashboard” at the University System of Ohio website.
Keep reading for a summary of some of the changes to Ohio’s system.
Some of the changes to Ohio’s system include:
Institutions will be able to set their own tuition at their main campuses, but that authority is contingent on their ability to offer need-based financial aid to all qualified students. The Chancellor will be establishing guidelines for need-based aid, and sharing those with the general assembly prior to the adoption of biennial budget.
High school graduates can be dual-admitted into a community college and university at the same time to shorten the time and reduce the cost of completing a degree.
Programs at adult workforce centers that are equivalent to technical programs at community colleges will now be accepted for college credit. Adult learning centers around the state will offer college-prep courses to adult workers to prepare them to re-enter higher education.
Drop-outs - students who don’t graduate high school by their 18th birthdays - will be aggressively recruited into a special program to complete their diplomas and prepare them for college.
Institutions will be integrated into a single technology infrastructure where students can apply for Ohio colleges and register at multiple institutions.
An Ohio Skills Bank will start measuring the demand for jobs in Ohio’s 12 economic development regions against the supply of students and programs available, adjusting the programs to address shortages.
Ohio will establish a center for studying how to help African American men succeed in college to help create a more diverse workforce. Private schools will share the cost of recruiting international students wth public schools to increase that diversity.
Schools will be expected to be increasingly efficient, and the chancellor will recommend to the general assembly every year new efficiency targets. Eventually, state support to the institutions should be increased to the national average, Fingerhut said.
The plan does not include much involvement with private colleges, only stating that they will be encouraged to participate in the state’s credit transfer system.
The University System of Ohio, created through a directive of Governor Strickland, consists of 13 public universities, 1 medical college, 24 regional branch campuses, 23 community colleges, as well as adult literacy and adult workforce centers.
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