Executive Briefing Colorado Higher Education Financing Study

The Commission initiated a funding to review national funding models for higher education led by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). Each institution contributed to the cost of the study and participated in the effort. NCHEMS' key recommendation is to move the funding discussions for higher education away from a cost model to a revenue-driven model. The fundamental question NCHEMS posed was how to determine whether institutions were adequately and equitably funded: i.e., each institution has adequate resources for the unique missions and resulting program offerings that affect cost. NCHEMS identified two sets of national models: one that uses costs, formulas and pieces of the structure of higher education to negotiate funding and the other that uses benchmarks developed through comparative institution analysis taking into consideration revenue in addition to costs. Based on NCHEMS' recommendation to utilize a model that benchmarks data and revenues, comparable institutional benchmarks were developed for each public higher education institution in Colorado. Using a revenue-driven model calculates the total of general tax funds and tuition and fees provided for operation of higher education. This model is not intended to be based on actual costs and does not take into account relative tax bases, governance structures, or history of funding. This model is not intended to serve as a distribution/allocation model. Further work must be conducted collaboratively with all stakeholders before decisions are made on proper allocation models. The following information is attached: (1) Criteria used by NCHEMS to select the benchmark institutions and to show each institution's benchmark/peer groups; (2) Percent of funding Colorado institutions receive compared to their benchmark institutions; (3) Series of charts showing the proportion of revenues as percent of funding by type of institution; (4) Each institution as a percent of their peer/benchmark institutions; and (5) Resident and Non-resident tuition and fee rates. (Contains 30 figures and 28 tables.).

The first and only voucher-based policy approach to finance higher education in America, the College Opportunity Fund (COF), was implemented by the state of Colorado in 2004. In 2011, this research study conducted a survey to seventeen senior administrators of Coloradan universities, as an attempt to examine the outcomes and effects of the COF program, from the administrators' perspective. What are the lessons learned from the College Opportunity Fund according to the university executives?

This issue brief provides an overview of the formula and mechanisms for distributing state funds from the General Assembly to public IHEs in Colorado.

Offers guidance for implementing reforms in the allocation of resources in colleges and universities