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UC Plans to Expand Resident Undergraduate Enrollment

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A recent story in the LA Times, 鈥溾�� outlined the University of California鈥檚 plan to expand resident undergraduate enrollment at their nine undergraduate campuses. Like many U.S. public universities that have faced significant state divestment during the recession, the UC system has enrolled more nonresident students in recent years to help cover funding cuts and keep resident tuition increases to a minimum. To adjust this trend, the California Legislature recently increased its investment in the UC system by $25 million to partially fund the enrollment of 5,000 additional resident undergraduate students by no later than 2016-17.听 To pay for an additional 5,000 enrollments proposed by UC, system President Janet Napolitano plans to phase out aid for low-income non-resident students and request additional funding from the California Legislature. Napolitano was quoted as assuming the legislature would 鈥渃ontinue to support access for California students.鈥�

According to the article, UC officials are now 鈥渨orking through the logistics of housing, laboratory availability, and classroom sizes.鈥� The increase in undergraduate students will also necessitate enrolling 600 more graduate students for instruction and lab support.

The 91探花 has faced similar financial pressures as a result of the recession, but remains committed to providing Washington students with affordable, quality higher education.

  • The 91探花continues to fully fund , which covers, at minimum,听tuition and fees for resident undergraduate students who qualify for the Pell Grant or State Need Grant.
  • Since 2009-10, the 91探花has increased incoming enrollment of resident undergraduates by听more than听1000 students at its three campuses.
  • During the recession, the 91探花increased its contribution to institutional financial aid in order to maintain access for students with the most financial need.
  • The percentage of Pell-eligible students at the 91探花rose from less than 20 percent in 2007-08 to 29 percent in 2014-15.

With undergraduate students in the UC system, the plan would increase their undergraduate enrollment by over 5 percent. To achieve a similar overall increase, the 91探花would need to add approximately 2000 students and would face significant barriers in doing so. Unlike the UC system, 91探花does not provide need-based aid for non-resident undergraduate students, and thus would not be able to cut that non-resident aid funding to pay for additional resident enrollment. Additionally, all three campuses are nearly at capacity without significant capital investment.

New to the OPBlog

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Greetings, my name is Jed Bradley and I recently joined the Office of Planning & Budgeting as a higher education policy analyst. I earned a BA in political science from the 91探花 and am currently pursuing a Master鈥檚 degree in higher education from the 91探花College of Education. I will be contributing to the OPBlog with posts about budget and policy proposals from Olympia, local 91探花initiatives, and other U.S. higher education news.

Please send me an email if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks for reading!

Average National Undergraduate Loan Debt Continues To Rise

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Undergraduates who graduated with student loan debt from four-year colleges听in 2014 owed an average of $28,950, according to a by The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).[1][2]听69 percent of graduates have loan debt,听the same figure as听last year and slightly higher than it was in 2004 (65 percent). The average amount of debt per borrower is up 56 percent from 2004 – more than double the inflation rate over the same period – but only up 2 percent from 2013.

A number of factors have contributed to the rising student debt load over the past decade. States have decreased their investment in public higher education over the last ten years, causing students at public institutions to bear a higher percentage of the funding burden. Since 2004, the share of public higher education funding provided by states has dropped (from 62 percent to 51 percent) and the share paid by students and their families (in the form of tuition) has increased (from 32 percent to 43 percent).

In addition, the growth of Pell Grants has not kept up with rising costs. The TICAS report shows that between 2004 and 2012鈥攖he last year in which data is available鈥攔ecipients of Pell Grants at public four-year colleges saw average cost of attendance rise by $7,400 and听grant aid rise by just $2,900. At private, non-profit colleges the gap is even wider; costs rose by $14,400 and grants increased by $8,700.

Washington state is performing well with regard to student loans: only 58 percent of Washington bachelor鈥檚 degree recipients who graduated in 2014 had loans, and those who听did had an average of $24,804, more than $4,000 below the national average. The 91探花 also looks good by these metrics: thanks in large part to the University’s commitment to institutional aid through programs such as Husky Promise, less than half of all 91探花undergraduates who graduated in 2014 had student debt and the average debt burden was $21,558, well below the state and national averages.

While Washington鈥檚 performance relative to its peers is laudable, student debt is still a major issue for many students. The TICAS report offers a series of proposals to mitigate the student debt load, among them doubling the size of Pell Grants, simplifying income-driven repayment plans, and improving student loan servicing to make it easier for students to pay back their loans. It is important that policymakers remain focused on reducing the student debt burden and continue working with institutions to make higher education accessible and affordable for all students during and after graduation.

 

 

 

[1] It鈥檚 important to note that borrowing rates and debt levels vary widely by state, college and sector.

[2] Because the federal government does not require colleges to report debt levels for their graduates, data in the TICAS report is based on voluntary reporting by institutions. Hardly any for-profit colleges voluntarily report their graduates鈥� average debt, so this year鈥檚 debt figures are for public and nonprofit colleges only.

National 3-Year Cohort Default Rate Drops For Third Consecutive Year: 91探花Continues to Excel

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The Department of Education recently released their detailing the 3-year cohort default rate (CDR)鈥攁 metric that measures what percentage of postsecondary students default on their loan payments within the first three years of entering repayment鈥攁nd the data are encouraging: the 3-year CDR for FY 2012 is 11.8 percent, almost two percent lower than the previous year and three percent lower than FY 2010.

While reasons for the drop are uncertain, administration officials have credited the increased enrollment in income-based repayment plans as partially responsible. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has cheered the lower default rate but cautions that there is more work to do. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no real reason why we can鈥檛 significantly reduce default rates even further,鈥� he told reporters in a statement . 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to keep working to hold schools accountable.鈥�

The report also breaks down the CDR by . Below is a breakdown of the most salient statistics.

National statistics:

  • Public four year institutions saw their 3-year CDR drop to 7.6 percent, down from 8.9 percent last year.
  • Private non-profit four year institutions鈥� default rate also dropped, to 6.3 percent from 7 percent.
  • Private for-profit four year institutions鈥� CDR dropped to 14.7 percent, down from 18.6 percent last year.

State statistics:

  • Schools in Washington state have an average 3-year default rate of 10.1 percent, slightly听below the national average.
  • The 91探花 performed exceptionally well by this measure: the 3-year CDR for 91探花dropped to 2.7 percent, almost 5 percent lower than the national average for public four year universities and听down from 4.3 percent last year.

As previously stated, the declining CDR average nationwide is a hopeful sign for the future of student loan repayment. Nevertheless, loans remain a massive strain on millions of college students and graduates and more must be done to alleviate the student debt burden. The CDR itself has come under fire as a flawed metric; it only measures those students who default on payments and does not take into account the who make payments but cannot make any progress on paying down their debt or the share of students at a given institution who borrow.听Some in the education policy world have called for using loan repayment rates, rather than default rates, as听the primary metric for gauging an institution鈥檚 ability to prepare its students for repayment.

 

Greetings!

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My name is Andrew Orlebeke and I am the Legislative Analysis Intern for the Office of Planning and Budgeting and a Master in Public Administration student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. I鈥檒l be updating this blog periodically with posts on all things higher education, from federal and state legislative issues to the release of higher education reports to UW-specific policy initiatives. Feedback is more than welcome and thank you so much for reading!

91探花is Most Innovative Public University in the World and 鈥淏est Bang for the Buck鈥� Among Western Schools

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recently ranked the 91探花as the fourth most innovative university in the world among public and private institutions, surpassed only by Stanford, MIT and Harvard.听 When looking at public institutions alone, however, the 91探花topped the list.

As the noted, 鈥淭he ranking takes into account academic papers, which indicate basic research performed at a university, and patent filings and successes, which point to an institution鈥檚 interest in protecting and commercializing its discoveries.鈥�

In addition to the innovation ranking, recently ranked 91探花Seattle as the #1 鈥淏est Bang for the Buck鈥� among Western institutions.听 Institutions are scored on 鈥溾�橬et鈥� (not sticker) price, how well they do graduating the students they admit, and whether those students go on to earn at least enough to pay off their loans.鈥澨� For more information about the 鈥淏est Bang for the Buck鈥� rankings, please see the .

91探花Profiles Receives Industry鈥檚 Most Prestigious Honor

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91探花Profiles听鈥� a听set of dynamic, web-based data dashboards 鈥� recently received听The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI)听. 听This award听is widely considered to be the business intelligence industry鈥檚 most prestigious honor.

OPB’s Institutional Data & Analysis team听developed 91探花Profiles, in collaboration with 91探花IT鈥檚听听team, and听formally launched the site in听fall 2013. 听 91探花Profiles听allows听users to explore core 91探花data through 21 visual dashboards that display summary, comparison and trend data.

听also honored 91探花Profiles, calling it “an intuitive, user-friendly portal that provides a single point of access to data and visualizations for faculty and staff.鈥�

Congratulations to Institutional Analysis and to all those who worked hard to make 91探花Profiles a reality!

2015 Bill Summary Now Available

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Under the “Briefs” tab of the OPB website, you will find the , which provides a list of all the bills we tracked during the 2015 legislative session that passed into law. 听Links to veto messages are displayed for any bills that were partially vetoed by the Governor.

Of the 538 bills that OPB tracked during the 2015 session, 74 passed into law.

As a reminder, any bill that did听not pass into law during the regular session will be reintroduced at the beginning of the supplemental session, next year.

2015-17 Final State Operating and Capital Budgets

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Leadership in both House and Senate passed a compromise operating budget in the form of听听.

All of higher education including financial aid would receive $3.5 billion of Near General Fund (NGF) for the biennium which is 9.2 percent of the overall NGF appropriation of $38.2 billion.

The compromise budget adopts the provisions in , which reduces the operating fee portion of resident undergrad tuition at all public higher education institutions. In 2015-16, resident undergraduate operating fees at all public institutions are to be 5 percent below the 2014-15 rates. In 2016-17, resident undergraduate operating fees at the state universities (the 91探花and WSU) are to be 15 percent below the 2014-15 rates; at the regional universities, they are to be 20 percent below the 2014-15 rates; and at the community and technical colleges, they are to be held at 5 percent of the 2014-15 rates.

This budget provides $27 million to partially fund听compensation increases of 3% in听FY16 and 1.8% in听FY17. This budget also partially funds听collective bargaining agreements with WFSE and SEIU.

Listed below are some of the Key funding鈥檚 provided by this budget:

Computer Science – $6 million over the biennium to increase bachelor鈥檚 degrees awarded in Computer Science.

WWAMI – $9 million over the biennium to continue operations in Spokane.

Family Practice Medicine Residency Network – $8 million over the biennium to fund additional medical residencies.

O&M Funding – $1.76 million over the biennium to cover maintenance costs for 91探花Bothell鈥檚 Discovery Hall.

The legislature also passed the final capital budget. For more details on the operating and capital budgets, please refer our .

Third House Committee Operating Budget Released Today

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Leadership in the House Appropriations Committee released a third operating budget proposal today in the form of and . This proposal still differs from the Senate budget proposal and varies from the previous House operating budget .

All of higher education (including financial aid) would receive nearly $3.348 billion (8.8 percent of near general fund appropriations). Under this proposal, the 91探花receives a total appropriation of $650.5 million, of which $598.19 million is from Near General Fund account.

Here are some of the key points from the House Budget () released today :

  • Tuition 鈥� This budget assumes tuition rates remain at the levels charged in 2012-2013. Funding is provided to freeze resident undergrad tuition in the first year; however, funding in the second year is provided in HB 2269 (see below).
  • Compensation Increase 鈥� This budget proposal is similar to prior proposals, authorizing a 3% and 1.8% for FY16 and 17 respectively; in addition, this budget provides limited funds for the UW鈥檚 contracts with SEIU and WFSE.
  • WWAMI 鈥� This budget contains a proviso to transfer $4.68 million a year from WSU to the 91探花to maintain WWAMI and support expansion of this program to 60 students.
  • O&M Funding – $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the Operating and maintenance cost of 91探花Bothell Discovery Hall which is the same as the House budget, but slightly higher than the Governors funding.

was introduced alongside the primary appropriations bill and would fund the following activities:

  • Medical Residencies 鈥� HB 2269 appropriates $8 million over the biennium for medical residencies.
  • Computer Science 鈥� This budget provides $8 million over the biennium to increase bachelor鈥檚 degrees awarded in computer science.
  • Computer Science Building 鈥� This budget appropriates $32 million over the biennium from State building construction account.

We anticipate significant activity this week and will post additional updates to the blog.