Performance cash: No school shut out
HOT SPRINGS -- This year, all Arkansas colleges and universities will maintain a portion of their state funding tied to performance-based measures.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board reviewed those funding mechanisms at its Friday meeting at National Park Community College. Higher education leaders are working on a redesign of the funding model that is expected to be ready for legislative approval later this year.
Each of the state's 22 colleges and 10 universities are scored on weighted measures so that they can earn a maximum of 10 points each. To maintain their state funding, the schools need to earn a minimum score of 6 points. Measures vary for two- and four-year schools.
This year, seven community colleges and four universities earned a perfect score.
Should a higher education institution fail to earn the minimum score, it would stand to lose a portion of its state funding. Last year, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, falling just shy of the minimum points, became the first school to do so.
The open-enrollment university submitted an improvement plan to the state Department of Higher Education and earned back money for specific parts of the plan. If it had scored below the minimum score for a second consecutive year, the Monticello school would lose the money, which would then become available as competitive grants for other state higher education institutions. It scored 9.44 points this go-round.
Colleges and universities get most of their state funding based on enrollment, but 10 percent of its state funding is tied to the performance-based measures.
Plan's aim: Avert surprise pregnancy
HOT SPRINGS -- The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved on Friday the transfer of funds from its foundation to the Department of Higher Education.
After the last legislative session, the board was tasked with developing a plan to help prevent unplanned pregnancies in the state, which has the highest rate of teen births in the nation.
A 25-member working group -- led by Angela Lasiter, a program specialist at the Higher Education Department -- had looked over free materials from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy that are available to colleges and universities.
The national nonprofit has online lessons and videos that can be used in orientation classes and student courses, but the working group wants to create its own online materials with Arkansans who had unplanned pregnancies as a part of its plan.
The videos will be shot at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, and the students featured in the videos will be reimbursed for mileage. Those students will also be given $25 gift cards as a token of appreciation, Higher Education Department Director Brett Powell said.
The transfer of money from the board's foundation funds will deplete the account by about $250, he said. The board's foundation fund had just over $1,500 Friday.
New UCA doctoral program advances
HOT SPRINGS -- The University of Central Arkansas is a step closer to starting a doctoral program in occupational therapy in fall 2017.
The program is undergoing the accreditation process with the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education. And on Friday, the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the start of the program contingent upon accreditation status.
The doctoral program would be the second of its kind in the state. The first began at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro in fall 2015. UCA officials expect 48 students to enroll at its start.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board also approved seven other programs, including a bachelor's degree program in computer science education at Arkansas Tech University and a bachelor's degree program in electrical engineering technology at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
Metro on 04/23/2016