On July 1, 2021, Martin Methodist College (MMC) merged with University of Tennessee System as the University of Tennessee Southern (UTS). The purpose of this supplemental report to the 2023 "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" is to provide a data summary and snapshot of UTS in relation to other public colleges across the state. This…

The Focus On College and University Success (FOCUS) Act of 2016 changed the scope of higher education in Tennessee by eliminating the shared governance of six public state universities. These six locally-governed universities (LGUs) were empowered to make programmatic decisions, pass their own budgets, and oversee standard university operations…

The purpose of this supplemental report to the 2022 "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" is to provide a data summary and snapshot of the University of Tennessee Southern (UTS) in relation to other public colleges across the state. This report supplement is reflective of the first enrollment period for UTS, fall 2021, and completions…

This brief tells the story of Indiana's efforts to develop and implement outcomes-based funding (OBF) for public postsecondary education. Indiana's story is supplemented by a briefer description of efforts in Tennessee. Based primarily on interviews with key state leaders, this story is designed to highlight the unique path each state took to…

Performance-based funding (PBF) for public colleges and universities is increasingly prevalent worldwide, as a part of a broader pattern of marketisation in public education. This study focused on developing an empirical view of how, and in what contexts, policy makers use the concepts of neoliberal economics to design and support PerformanceBased…

As California begins to reinvest in public higher education after several years of budget cuts, it could opt to tie funding more closely with outcomes--for example, the number of students educated or degrees awarded. This approach, known as performance-based funding, has the potential to incentivize investment by the state's higher education…

College is one of the most reliable routes to economic security for parents and their children. College credentials are linked to increased earnings, higher rates of employment, lower poverty rates, and improved economic and educational outcomes among the children of college graduates. Student parents and their families stand to gain…

This is a time of great challenge and opportunity for American higher education. The challenges are well-established and widely acknowledged: escalating standards for economic competitiveness, coupled with a severe economic downturn and protracted recovery, require broad access to relevant postsecondary education, training and retooling as never…

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) adopted the Master Plan for Tennessee Postsecondary Education 2015-2025 in 2015. Published as Tennessee was launching the Drive to 55, the 2015-2025 Plan includes state and system-level projections of the necessary degree production to reach our state's ambitious attainment goal. As a complement to…

Prior learning assessment (PLA) is the process of evaluating learning, regardless of when or where the learning occurred, and, if the learning is at the college level, awarding college credit to the possessor of that learning. This article provides an overview of the PLA program at a large public U.S. institution and presents the findings of the…

The majority of Southern states performed below the national average and the average of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in terms of the percent of young adults in 2015 who attained an associate degree or higher. This regional profile presents a synthesis of trends in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

This year's "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" consists of four sections and an appendix of additional resources and terminology. The four main sections of the report provide data on Student Participation, Student Success, Academic and Fiscal Trends, and Outcomes-Based Funding. Relative to the previous Fact Book, Quality Assurance…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

This year's "Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book" consists of five sections and an appendix of additional resources and terminology. The five main sections of the report provide data on Student Participation, Student Success, Academic and Fiscal Trends, Quality Assurance Funding, and Outcomes-Based Funding. Each section begins with…