Plan aims for more college grads

By Harold Gwin

The chancellor said the plan will change Ohio’s approach to higher education.

YOUNGSTOWN — Ohio falls well below the national average in terms of state funding for full-time college students.

The state is about $1,100 per student below the national annual average or a total of about $420 million statewide, according to Eric Fingerhut, Ohio’s Chancellor of Higher Education.

It’s a gap he said he believes can and will be made up as part of the 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education he presented to Gov. Ted Strickland this week, a plan designed to raise the educational attainment of the state’s population and develop higher education as a driving force in economic development and prosperity.

It’s an ambitious project with three basic goals — graduate more students, keep more of those graduates in Ohio and attract more degree holders from out of state — and represents a profound change in Ohio’s approach to higher education, Fingerhut told The Vindicator.

Where the state basically rewarded public institutions of higher education in the past based on their enrollment numbers, this plan sets measures to which the state will adjust its funding stream, the chancellor said.

Colleges and universities will be rewarded based on how well they perform their jobs as each will be required to develop its own Centers of Excellence that will attract both in-state and out-of-state students.

It ends the counterproductive competition among those schools for scarce resources, Fingerhut said. Though each will still be required to provide a comprehensive, quality education, they will be asked to create distinctive missions that will make them integral parts of the new University System of Ohio, which the governor recently created covering Ohio’s 13 public universities and their branch campuses, one medical college and 23 community colleges as well as adult literacy and adult work-force centers.

Each school will contribute differently to the whole, Fingerhut said, noting that one of Youngstown State University’s focuses might be on increasing its number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees.

YSU is poised to do just that, through its new College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, which opened last fall.

The universities will be measured against a list of 20 “accountability measures” under the strategic plan, looking at things such as access, quality, affordability, efficiency and economic leadership.

Determining that “mission differentiation” will be both a challenge and an opportunity for Youngstown State University, said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president.

Each university has until Dec. 31 to submit its proposed Centers of Excellence for the chancellor’s review, Sweet noted. It’s an issue that YSU has been discussing for some months, as the university seeks to determine how it will fit in with the others in the University System of Ohio, he said.

The shift in funding as outlined in the plan will be another area of adjustment as YSU wrestles with the issue of program accountability, Sweet predicted.

Individual schools will be given flexibility to set tuition rates at their main campuses, but they must also offer financial aid based on need to all qualified students interested in their programs, Fingerhut said, explaining that will be part of the plan’s effort to reduce the cost of higher education.

There are multiple strategies that go into controlling costs, such as providing low-cost options such as “2 plus 2 campuses” that would enable students to enroll at a community college at costs lower than traditional campuses and earn their associate degree with an option of staying on to earn a four-year degree, Fingerhut said.

Other strategies might include increased efficiency through shared purchasing and administrative services among institutions and increased private fund-raising efforts, the chancellor said.

There could also be discounts for students willing to take summer courses or Friday night courses, all designed to provide a quality education at the lowest possible cost, he said.

The strategic plan calls for a “30-mile guarantee,” which means the state promises that high quality associate and bachelor’s programs in core fields will be made available within 30 miles of every Ohioan’s home.

The plan is a guide but the process of reforming higher education in Ohio will be a work in progress that will require the ongoing efforts of the state administration, state Legislature and colleges and universities, Fingerhut said.

gwin@vindy.com