BOG embraces performance funding for universities

Source: FSView, 01/16/14
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Florida’s 12 public universities have been put on notice: Do well, and you will be rewarded. Conversely, if you fail to meet expectations or do not improve, prepare to be penalized.

This is how performance funding, approved earlier today by the Board of Governors, will play out during the 2014-2015 academic year. BOG, which oversees the State University System, has been moving toward performance-based funding for almost two years.

On Thursday, meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, its final session before the Legislature begins grappling with the state budget in early March, BOG redefined the performance funding model it had discussed at length in September.

“It’s actually about credibility. Our conversation with our elected leaders gains credibility when we have skin in the game,” new SUS Chancellor Marshall Criser III said. “I believe that this model achieves academic excellence. It provides our universities with the flexibility to go to the next level.”

Ton Kuntz, chairman of BOG’s Budget and Finance Committee which gave initial approval to the performance funding plan, noted that a growing number of states already are using similar models to determine funding for their public universities.
BOG, at least for the coming year, will apply 10 metrics for each of the 12 institutions. Seven are identical, and in most cases, nine will be the same with one metric left to each university to determine.

A 50-point scoring system has been established (5 points per metric) and a school must score at least 26 points to be eligible for a portion of the $50 million in new funding BOG has requested from the Legislature.

The three schools with the lowest score will not be eligible for performance funds, and they will see a 1 percent reduction to their base funding that could grow to as much as a 3 percent reduction by the second year of the model approved today.