It will be used in the Board of Governors’ annual performance-funding evaluations this summer. During that process, all 12 universities will be evaluated on the student-cost-for-a-degree metric as part of more than a dozen measurements used to rank the universities. The rankings are important because the three lowest-performing schools will not be eligible in 2017-18 for state performance funding, which amounted to $225 million this year.
The new measurement is in line with Gov. Rick Scott’s call for more “accountability and transparency” in higher-education costs. As well as supporting the expansion of Bright Futures scholarships to the summer semester, Scott has asked universities and state colleges this year to hold the line on tuition and fee increases in the coming year. Neither the House nor Senate budget bills include a tuition hike.
Scott has also backed efforts to reduce the cost of textbooks for students. The new metric includes the textbook costs along with tuition and fees for the “sticker price” of baccalaureate degrees. It does not, however, include costs such as student housing and transportation.