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Will other states emulate policies of the 7 States to increase college-completion rate up to 60% from a low of 39%?
The Lumina Foundation for Education recently announced that they have set aside up to a total of $9.1 million which will be awarded to seven states in an attempt to achieve its goal of increasing college-completion rates. The seven states which will be receiving the grants are those adapting and revising their policies in order to improve productivity in their colleges and universities.
Lumina’s goal is to increase the number of American adults with college degrees by a staggering 60 percent from the current low of 39 percent. They wish to achieve their goal by 2025. Lumina’s strategy is well calculated, Sheila Danzig, Director of Degree.com notices. She says that Lumina wishes to stimulate new policies in the seven states which can then act as ‘role models’ to the other states and thus such productive policies be implemented in most if not all states. The states receiving the grants include: Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
According to Jamie P. Merisotis, president of Lumina, the policies which need to be implemented by the seven states include:
- Those which issue state aid based on performance of colleges on graduation and other measures that indicate completion of diploma or degree programs.
- Those which can provide measures of saving college overhead and operations costs, channeling the savings to already devised ways of improving undergraduate education.
- Those that provide models for making higher education cheaper and accessible to state residents.
The funds will be disbursed to the states over a four-year period and they will only receive the full amount by demonstrating efforts of gearing towards meeting the agreed upon milestones. The states are expected to report publicly and periodically, common metrics that indicate their progress. the seven are mandated to report: data on the number of programs completed and degrees awarded per 100 students enrolled, revenue and spending per full-time-equivalent student, and the extent to which shifts in revenue and increases in spending have led to tuition increases.
Mr. Merisotis said that the states have for a long time known that they have need to implement such policies but they have not been willing to take the risks and that is why Lumina is providing the financial backbone to propel innovation which may soon be applied nationwide.
Lumina officials have reported that some other states have tried some of the plans on the ‘to do’ list of the seven states, such as adopting financing formulas based on the numbers of graduates; they are all the same positive that they will gain remarkable momentum in the seven than they have with predecessors. Other ideas are very new, like Montana’s plan to create online community colleges by packaging degree programs and training personnel from existing campuses and making those online courses available statewide.
As the seven states embark on revising policies to receive full awards by the time four years are over, they should make it easier to earn a degree online so that other states follow suit irrespective of whether they are funded by Lumina or other foundations or not.
Tags: college degrees, degree programs, online courses, earn a degree online
Summary: Lumina is awarding the seven states the grant so that they can implement policies that can help Americans complete college. They expect other states to follow suit so that by 2025 the rate of college-completion in America is up to 60 percent.
Lumina Makes Grants to 7 States to Raise Productivity in Higher Education
Will other states emulate policies of the 7 States to increase college-completion rate up to 60% from a low of 39%?
The Lumina Foundation for Education recently announced that they have set aside up to a total of $9.1 million which will be awarded to seven states in an attempt to achieve its goal of increasing college-completion rates. The seven states which will be receiving the grants are those adapting and revising their policies in order to improve productivity in their colleges and universities.
Lumina’s goal is to increase the number of American adults with college degrees by a staggering 60 percent from the current low of 39 percent. They wish to achieve their goal by 2025. Lumina’s strategy is well calculated, Sheila Danzig, Director of Degree.com notices. She says that Lumina wishes to stimulate new policies in the seven states which can then act as ‘role models’ to the other states and thus such productive policies be implemented in most if not all states. The states receiving the grants include: Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
According to Jamie P. Merisotis, president of Lumina, the policies which need to be implemented by the seven states include:
- Those which issue state aid based on performance of colleges on graduation and other measures that indicate completion of diploma or degree programs.
- Those which can provide measures of saving college overhead and operations costs, channeling the savings to already devised ways of improving undergraduate education.
- Those that provide models for making higher education cheaper and accessible to state residents.
The funds will be disbursed to the states over a four-year period and they will only receive the full amount by demonstrating efforts of gearing towards meeting the agreed upon milestones. The states are expected to report publicly and periodically, common metrics that indicate their progress. the seven are mandated to report: data on the number of programs completed and degrees awarded per 100 students enrolled, revenue and spending per full-time-equivalent student, and the extent to which shifts in revenue and increases in spending have led to tuition increases.
Mr. Merisotis said that the states have for a long time known that they have need to implement such policies but they have not been willing to take the risks and that is why Lumina is providing the financial backbone to propel innovation which may soon be applied nationwide.
Lumina officials have reported that some other states have tried some of the plans on the ‘to do’ list of the seven states, such as adopting financing formulas based on the numbers of graduates; they are all the same positive that they will gain remarkable momentum in the seven than they have with predecessors. Other ideas are very new, like Montana’s plan to create online community colleges by packaging degree programs and training personnel from existing campuses and making those online courses available statewide.
Sheila Danzig, founder of Degree.com, www.degree.com, the internet premier portal for online study, pointed out that as the seven states embark on revising policies to receive full awards by the time four years are over, they should make it easier to earn a degree online so that other states follow suit irrespective of whether they are funded by Lumina or other foundations or not.
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