Increase Baccalaureate degree Production
Talent plays a critical role in developing world-class economies. nationally and internationally, Florida lags in the percentage of its adult population with college degrees. Currently, 27 percent of Florida's 25-64 year-old population, or 2.5 million people, have a bachelor's degree or higher. The national average is 29 percent. If Florida were to reach the education level of the ten most productive states in the nation (per GDP per capita), we would have 3.9 million adults with bachelor's degrees, or 1.4 million more than today.
To increase baccalaureate degree production in the state of Florida, the Board of Governors (BOG) intends to:
- Reward universities that reach individually established targets on a set of measures drawn from a BOG-approved menu of undergraduate performance indicators (for example, freshman-to-sophomore retention rates; graduation rates; etc.).
- Develop a planning process to identify the location and mission of new baccalaureate-only institutions, including the possible conversion of State University System branch campuses and the construction of campuses when they meet such predetermined Board of Governors established criteria as projected population growth, economic development, and workforce development.
- Create new models for baccalaureate degree production through collaborative efforts with the Division of Community Colleges of the State Board of Education and the not-for-profit Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida.
- Cooperate with the State Board of Education to improve the readiness of underrepresented minority populations for the baccalaureate degree along with improving their retention and graduation rates to the same or better rate than System averages.
- Increase the number of distance education degrees with special emphasis on high state needs in cooperation with community colleges and not-for-profit independent colleges and universities.
