This mixed methods dissertation investigates the impact that cost-disaggregating tools like the Delaware Cost Study (DCS) have on the expenditure patterns at large, public research universities. It draws on public budgeting and higher education finance literature to form a theory of action that hypothesizes that expense management at such…

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) is an alternative placement system that involves the consideration of alternative measures of students' performance--such as high school grades or GPA--in addition to or in place of standardized test scores to better place students. While the evidence for MMA is strong, placement reform has yet to spread to many…

This study examines the relationship between cost efficiency and privatization at 163 public research institutions in the United States between 2005 and 2015. We employ a spatial autoregressive (SAR) random-effects model and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the relationship between costs and four privatization variables: auxiliary…

Purpose and Method of Study: This study focused on the relationship between the cost of undergraduate education (COUE) and graduation rates in four-year institutions in Oklahoma. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the cost of undergraduate education (COUE) and graduation rates at four-year higher education…

Transition-age adults with disabilities largely desire the same community employment and community participation outcomes as young adults without disabilities. One common barrier to the manifestation of these desires is the lack of reliable and accessible transportation in their communities. This study used the participatory action research method…

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning serves as the governing board overseeing the eight public universities in Mississippi, including the University of Mississippi Medical Center located in Jackson. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the accrediting body for each of the public universities in Mississippi.…

Like other nations, Vietnam annually subsidies higher education via state budget to maintain academic operations of public institutions. However, the question of how to fairly and appropriately distribute state funding to public institutions is still challenging, therefore unfair distribution to some extent influence their cost efficiency. Using…

The United States cannot meet its higher education goals without changing the way it funds public colleges and universities. Current funding models do not sufficiently advance fully scaled improvements. Instead, today's models create unfunded mandates: Colleges are required to increase completion rates, but they do not receive essential funding…

Objective: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of food insecurity among female collegiate athletes. Participants: NCAA Division I female athletes attending a public university located in East Texas in 2018. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional online survey was employed to gather quantitative and qualitative data regarding food…

Making college more affordable for families has been a critical issue for states in the SREB region for many years. Now the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have created additional barriers to college affordability. This brief provides an overview of college affordability in the SREB region based on data from the 2017-2018…

As college tuition rises nationwide, policy efforts to reduce these costs are increasingly focused at the 2-year level. However, it is not fully known whether increased access to college increases degree attainment. Compared to observationally equivalent peers who enroll in 4-year institutions, 2-year enrollees may face a decreased likelihood of…

California's public higher education system has catapulted the state into global leadership such that, the state is the 5th largest economy in the world today. A bachelor's degree, in particular, provides unrivaled economic and health benefits for the individual earning the degree and for the state. To better understand how California's public…

Do students respond to sticker prices or actual prices when applying to college? These costs differ for students eligible for financial aid. Students who do not understand this may not apply to some colleges because of the perceived high cost. We test for this form of "sticker shock" using College Board data on SAT scores sends, as a…

This study examines the effect of responsibility center management (RCM), a decentralized budget model, on total operating costs at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and the University of Arizona (UofA). Both universities in the study implemented RCM with the primary goal of controlling costs, among other goals. To address the research…

Advocates of tuition-free four-year public college make the argument for it too easy by asserting that it would be paid for out of taxes on the wealthy. Other uses of the revenues are possible. In this paper, Harry Brighouse and Kailey Mullane establish two criteria for comparing different uses of the revenues: the first criterion is, will the…