A shift in the funding model for public universities in Kentucky could mean a difference in the way they receive funding.

Under the proposal, university funding would no longer be solely dependent on enrollment, but largely on student success - and Western Kentucky University officials are already working to adapt.

As the state’s university presidents and the Council on Postsecondary Education continue talks to nail down specifics for a new funding model, WKU is working to strengthen its programs aimed at retaining and graduating students.

Funding for universities is heavily dependent on the number of students enrolled; however, the recommended model shifts funding to a formula more focused on giving monetary incentives based on the number of degrees each university produces.

While the change was recommended for the current 2008-09 budget, state cuts to higher education meant the model had to be delayed, said John Hayek, interim director of finance for CPE.

“Double the Numbers” was a CPE initiative announced in 2007 to increase the state’s number of college graduates to the national average by 2020. Increasing bachelor’s degrees is the quickest, most direct way for Kentucky to increase its economic prosperity, according to a CPE news release touting the program.

While Hayek said the decision for what the funding model will be for 2010-12 has not yet been made, WKU President Gary Ransdell says a funding model based on degree productivity is the future.

“It hasn’t been determined yet,” Ransdell said. “But that’s where it appears to be going.”

Ransdell, who sent out a challenge to faculty and staff last Friday to take personal responsibility to graduate every student enrolled, said the university has a range of programs in place to help students succeed.

“We realize when we enroll them, we have to do everything we can to graduate them,” he said.

One strategy the university is using is putting great emphasis on MASTER Plan, a five-day orientation program for first-year students. The Making Academic and Social Transitions Educationally Rewarding Plan is intended to help ease the transition into college.

Week-long sessions before school starts - focused on academic expectations, living in dorms, diversity and learning to navigate the campus - prevent incoming freshmen from being overwhelmed on the first day of classes.

Another strategy, Ransdell said, is to increase the number of high-performing students on campus through the university’s Honors College. Nearly all the Honors College students graduate, he said, allowing the university to devote more attention to at-risk students.

Dean Kahler, vice president of academic affairs at WKU, said the university also offers the Bridge program, allowing WKU students to take classes at Bowling Green Community College. The university is also making students more aware of such resources as the Academic Advising and Retention Center, which provides a wide range of services, such as peer advising programs and teaching study skills, Kahler said.

Kahler said WKU also conducts regular assessments of students to help identify trouble areas, allowing it to intervene early.

“If we see an attendance problem, we’ll call them rather than wait until the end of semester, when the student has a D or F on their transcript,” he said. “We’re doing some interventions where we get into these students’ lives.”

Kahler said Project Graduate: WKU Finish is yet another way the university is helping students graduate.

WKU Finish, the university’s version of a statewide initiative coordinated by the CPE, has seen growing interest, officials said. The program targets former students who have earned 90 or more credit hours of undergraduate work without completing a bachelor’s degree.

Through this program, he said, the university assists those returning students with any obstacles they encounter.

“All these are best practices,” Kahler said. “What we want to do is strive to make programs better. We continue to grow services and options available to the students. We always want to improve, but I think we have a lot of great programs in place that can help students.”

Last year, the university had an enrollment of 19,265, but this year has already exceeded 19,500, Kahler said.

Because the university has a growing enrollment, it is in a position to graduate more students, Ransdell said. Last year, a total of 3,462 degrees were conferred.

Ransdell said there are two ways to drive up graduation numbers - enroll more students and retain more students, both of which he said the university plans to do. But, he continued, WKU needs help from the state to hire the necessary faculty needed to grow these numbers. The proposed funding model depends upon state funding, he said - “otherwise it’s an invalid model.

“We’ve been making this shift in the last few years, gradually worked toward this goal, so I’m not uncomfortable with it. But again, we can’t drive up degree productivity in the face of declining state support and there’s a limit to the degree you can drive up tuition and grow degree productivity ... it comes back to state funding.”

Ransdell said growing the state’s economy depends on more college graduates in the work force.

While the funding model changes its focus from counting bodies to counting degrees, Ransdell said academic quality at the university will remain high.

“I do not see any reason to reduce quality as we improve our graduation rate,” he said. “I don’t think you have to sacrifice one for the other. I feel we will grow in this environment.”