Four Steps to Finishing First in Higher Education
Practical Guides for Boosting Productivity
Lumina Foundation for Education has developed the Four Steps series to help state policymakers and higher education leaders in their efforts to fashion policy agendas that focus on graduating more students with the resources available while maintaining quality. Each guide focuses on a major area where states can – and are – taking steps to improve effectiveness and efficiency in higher education, offering case examples and resources for advice and assistance.
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Four Steps to Finishing First in Higher Education: A Guide for State Policymakers defines the four steps and makes the case for why states need to make significant changes in how they fund and deliver higher education. |
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Step 1: Rewarding Institutions That Focus on Students’ Completing Quality Programs, Not Just Attempting Them examines state funding models for colleges and universities and profiles approaches that reward institutions for outcomes such as graduation rather than just inputs such as enrollment or last year’s funding levels. |
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Step 2: Rewarding Students for Completing Courses and Degree or Certificate Programs notes that course completion and graduation incentives should be focused on students as well as institutions and highlights promising new policy work in this area. |
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Step 3: Expanding and Strengthening Lower-Cost, Nontraditional Education Options Through Modified Regulations documents the role that nontraditional institutions (mega-institutions, online and competency-based institutions) play in providing lower-cost pathways to certificates and degrees and the regulatory barriers to their expansion. |
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Step 4: Investing in Institutions That Demonstrate the Result of Adopting Good Business Practices calls on colleges and universities to regularly review their costs; consolidate, outsource or eliminate programs and services where necessary; and reinvest cost savings toward increasing student completion of high-quality programs. |