The Partnership for College Completion has released, “Effective, Equitable, and Efficient: A New Paradigm for Holding Universities Accountable,” a new higher education accountability framework that centers students, prioritizes adequate resourcing, and promotes transparency, collaboration, and measurable progress across the state’s public university system.
Decades of budget cuts and narrow performance metrics have failed to meet student needs or support long-term institutional improvement in Illinois. Informed by key findings and funding models from K-12, healthcare, and Illinois’ transitional math and English implementation, PCC urges the state to fundamentally rethink and redesign its higher education funding model in its latest report.
“Amid dramatic reductions in federal support for higher education and weakening student protections, states must strengthen systems and ensure that institutions are accessible, affordable, efficient, and effective,” PCC Executive Director Kyle Southern, Ph.D., said. “This report does some of the heavy lifting by looking at lessons from other funding models that could be applied effectively in our state’s higher education funding system.”
Illinois has yet to update accountability systems the state adopted during the 1980s, despite the need to address structural challenges facing colleges and universities. Instead, the continued use of these outdated approaches has deepened inequities, undermining institutions’ abilities to support student success. However, through the implementation of the proposed Adequate and Equitable Funding formula, the state is in a unique position to lead the nation. If the state can create balanced structures and policies that emphasize accountability without punishing institutions, Illinois can ensure that public dollars meaningfully expand opportunity for future generations.
The report provides five principles to implement accountability for equitable and adequate funding:
- The state must provide more resources to achieve better outcomes.
- Mandates may be necessary, but they’re not sufficient. There must also be shared goals, support, coordination, and monitoring.
- The state must ensure universities use additional funds to measurably improve affordability and access.
- Consequences must be tied to shared goals and outcomes, and provide incentives for supporting students to earn a degree, without the threat of removing essential resources.
- Institutions should operate efficiently, individually and as a system.