Advocate Online

They're Talking On Campus. . .

...About Does Public Funding of Higher Education Matter?, a study by Liang Zhang of the University of Minnesota and Cornell University. Dr. Zhang’s answer:

“When other factors are held constant, a $1,000 increase in state appropriations per FTE student at four-year public institutions is associated with about a one percentage point increase in graduation rates. This positive link appears to hold for all research/doctoral, masters, and baccalaureate institutions. In addition, there is evidence that modest increases (or a decrease) in state funding are associated with rapid increases in tuition rates charged at four-year public institutions, which likely result in an additional negative impact on graduation rates. Simply put, there is no such a thing as free lunch when it comes to graduation rates at public higher education institutions.”

To view the paper, visit the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute www.ilr.cornell.edu/cheri/.

...About another report from “the things-we-always-knew department.” A study, conducted by Dan Jacoby, the Harry Bridges Professor of Labor Studies at the University of Washington, has found that community colleges with higher percentages of full-time faculty members have higher completion rates for students.

Jacoby conducted his national analysis of graduation and program completion rates at community colleges with a variety of academic missions and student demographics. His article appears in the Nov./Dec. 2007 Journal of Higher Education.