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Colleges, Universities See Performance Funding Rewards

The New Jersey Commission on Higher Education recently has said that the state's public colleges and universities earned $8.7 million in performance funding in fiscal year 2001. NJIT received a 93.8 percent rating and $473,690 in performance-earned funding for fiscal year 2001.

Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey received a 100 percent funding percentage. Rutgers received $2,948,000 and UMDNJ $1827,000.

This is the second year in which the institutions can earn up to an additional 1 percent in state-operating aid based upon performance in four key areas identified by former Gov. Christine Whitman:

• Graduation rates.
• Articulation and transfer.
• Efficiency and effectiveness.
• Diversified revenues.

Overall, the 31 public colleges and universities earned 93 percent of the total funds earmarked for performance. Last year, the institutions earned 92 percent of the total. Collectively, the four-year public institutions were eligible for up to $8 million this year and earned a total of $7.5 million, while the community colleges earned $1.2 million of a possible $1.3 million.

"We are very pleased that the colleges and universities earned such a high percentage of the performance funds," said James E. Sulton Jr., executive director of the Commission on Higher Education. "The institutions continue to demonstrate their commitment to achieving statewide goals."

The targeted performance areas are consistent with statewide goals identified in New Jersey's Plan for Higher Education. Specific indicators and benchmarks for each public higher education sector were developed in collaboration with college and university officials, recognizing different institutional roles and missions. Annual performance funding does not compare the colleges and universities to each other. Rather, it evaluates them with respect to pre-established benchmarks to promote their own performance and improvement.

Each of the institutions successfully addressed the goal of improved efficiency and effectiveness, and nearly three-quarters gained the maximum available funds in that area, as well as in articulation and transfer. All institutions demonstrated improvement on graduation rates, and more than two-thirds received the maximum funding in that area as well.

The goal of acquiring more diversified revenues continues to demand increased efforts for New Jersey's institutions of higher education to generate more funding from sources beyond state and local government and student tuition. The commission will continue to work with the colleges and universities to review and refine the performance-funding program.

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