What will changes to the funding model mean for Western Kentucky University?

That question has yet to be answered for WKU, or the other remaining public universities. WKU President Gary Ransdell said no one can answer that yet, because university presidents are just starting to define the actual formula for that model.

What is known is the higher education funding model for Kentucky’s public universities will be reshaped - potentially to one that gives monetary incentives for the increment in growth in number of degrees granted from one year to the next.

“Higher education in Kentucky has become a numbers game, and the numbers that count are the graduates,” said Ransdell during his convocation speech last Friday to faculty and staff. “No longer is enrollment the magic number. Percentages of those who are retained or who graduate are no longer measured. The key measure now, and for the foreseeable future, is absolute bachelor’s degrees awarded as compared to the number awarded in the previous year.”

As the state’s university presidents and the Council on Postsecondary Education continue talks to nail down specifics for the funding model, interim director of finance John Hayek said they will know by midsummer next year what the model will be for the 2010-2012 biennium.

Hayek said in its 2008-10 budget recommendation, the CPE’s goal was to request state support that would maintain an institution’s base General Fund appropriation, while at the same time providing incentives to encourage degree production. Under this proposal, all institutions were given an inflationary adjustment in the proposed funding model, which equated to approximately a 3.3 percent increase, Hayek said.

“Say Western got $50 million (as its base General Fund appropriation), they would automatically get $1.5 million because of 3 percent inflation,” Hayek said, “plus incentive money for increasing degrees.”

Also, under the proposed CPE’s recommendation, institutions were allocated incentive money to focus on various statewide strategic initiatives, including developmental education, regional stewardship and research. Institutions were also eligible to participate in the “Double the Numbers” funding pool, which was created to reward institutions for every additional bachelor’s degree produced above their current baseline, Hayek said.

Under the new model, the additional net General Funds requested for the public institutions were approximately $82 million in the first year and an additional $92 million in the second, Hayek said.

“The benefit of this model is to encourage greater student success in college,” Hayek said, noting colleges and universities would have to invest additional resources, time and effort on student success, “whereas the old model wasn’t set up to encourage that. No matter whether the student was progressing or not, the institution was awarded.”

Ransdell said university presidents and the CPE have been gradually working toward the change in the funding model over the last few years. He said the funding model was proposed for the 2008-09 budget, but was dismissed in late December when they learned about state budget cuts to higher education. Ransdell said the next funding model will build on the foundations of the last proposal.

While university presidents and the CPE look at a funding model that awards additional funding based on degree productivity over the coming months, Hayek said they can only make a recommendation.

“The General Assembly alone dictates how much money higher education receives,” he said, “no matter what plan is proposed.”