State
Cost per Degree: Measuring Inputs and Outputs at Maine's Public and Private Colleges
By Maine Heritage Policy Center
Jan 6, 2009 - 12:27:45 PM

PORTLAND -- The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a Portland-based public policy think tank, has released the second publication in a new series dedicated to Fiscal Sanity in Maine. The new paper, "Cost per Degree: Measuring Inputs and Outputs at Maine's Public and Private Colleges," introduces a new way of analyzing higher education performance and efficiency in Maine and suggests possible cost saving reforms.

"Too often, discussions surrounding higher education policy in Maine revolve around how much more money is needed each year, as opposed to how the money already allocated is being spent and what is being accomplished," said Stephen Bowen, director of the Center for Education Excellence at The Maine Heritage Policy Center. "I don't believe the State devotes enough attention to the outcomes, to what we are buying for the vast amounts we are spending."

The Center's newest report analyzes the cost-per-degree granted for public and private colleges across Maine. By taking overall spending and dividing it by the number of degrees granted by each college and university, adjusted to account for the various kinds of degrees, the Center was able to develop a new way of looking at higher education performance and efficiency in Maine.

The Center found, for instance, that Maine's smaller public universities and colleges have lower per-degree costs. "This goes against what we're always told, which is that the smaller schools are less cost-effective," noted Bowen. "Our data seems to suggest that it is the big schools that have high non-degree spending. Legislators should look into this."

Additionally, the Center found that as the state's budget woes have continued, the state's University and Community College systems have become more cost-effective. "Per-degree costs actually dropped over the period studied" said Bowen. "These systems are to be congratulated for the work they've done to improve efficiencies."

Data from the report also indicates that Associate's degrees were less costly on a per-degree basis at the colleges of the University of Maine system than they were at the Community College system, and that a number of private colleges in Maine have lower per-degree costs than some of Maine's public colleges.

"Every widget manufacturer knows how much it costs to produce a single widget," adds Tarren Bragdon, chief executive officer of The Maine Heritage Policy Center and co-author of this new study. "Maine's higher education institutions should work to figure out what it costs to produce a graduate with a college degree."

"In tough budget times, policymakers need to take a hard look at what campuses and colleges are efficient and if and how the taxpayer may be subsidizing less productive and more costly degree programs. Our cost per degree research provides a way to begin that analysis and focus any reform efforts," Bragdon continued.

The complete research document, which contains detailed tables and maps, an explanation of the methodologies, key initial findings and recommendations for added research, is available now at this link: www.mainepolicy.org/library/resources/126.pdf.