The Missouri Department of Higher Education is taking steps to implement a new funding model for public colleges and universities that would allocate funding predominately based on the number of bachelor’s degrees award by the institutions. Under the proposed model, each school would develop a single goal to reflect its mission, by choosing four of six performance metrics to calculate funding, including measures that analyze freshman to sophomore retention rates, full-time undergraduate rates, six-year graduation rates, total degrees awarded, degrees awarded per full-time student and performance on national professional exams. Although each institution is allowed to develop a single goal to its mission, the UM System receives one appropriation, and would therefore have to develop a single goal across all four campuses. The plan will be evaluated for approval by the Coordinating Board … Read entire article »