Governor’s Summit on Higher Education - A message from Tom Vansaghi

Higher education leaders from across Missouri were in Jefferson City on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010, for the first governor’s summit on higher education. Gov. Jay Nixon (D) welcomed a crowd of several hundred presidents, chancellors, administrators, board members and faculty by underscoring the importance of higher education.

Presentations focused on the fact that the Missouri budget will be $400 to $500 million short next fiscal year (FY2012) and that the potential for cuts across state government-including higher education-will be substantial. Nixon acknowledged that tuition increases may be necessary beginning in the fall of 2012.

He expressed his appreciation to the higher education community for not raising tuition over the past two years—something no other state in the nation has managed to do. Other presentations focused on techniques and programs to transform teaching and learning in higher education and increasing the percentage of Americans who will earn college degrees by 2025 from 39 to 60 percent.

Nixon outlined four key areas he is charging higher education to focus on: attainment; academic program review; cooperation and collaboration; and funding. The expectation is that every college and university in the state will report their monthly progress on these four areas to the Department of Higher Education and they will report all findings back to Nixon.

• Attainment involves holding institutions accountable for aligning K-12 curriculum with higher education, enrolling more students in higher education classes and programs and insuring that more students graduate with a two or four year degree.

• Academic program review will hold colleges and universities accountable for offering academic programs that increase graduates in fields where there are jobs available. The Department of Higher Education will work closely with academic institutions to conduct a systematic review of all degree programs to insure this is occurring. Increased cooperation and collaboration is about creating more administrative and academic efficiencies.

• Administrative efficiency addresses each institution's ability to find more efficient and less expensive ways to operate, while academic will involve a detailed inventory of cooperation and collaboration around academic programs to determine whether they are meeting the goals that were intended for them. Additional collaboration and cooperation could occur through sharing faculty, libraries, equipment and expansion of dual credit.

• Funding includes asking institutions to develop multi-year, sustainable funding models that strike a balance between public funding, tuition and cost reductions.

“This is the time for bold thinking and bold action," Nixon said in his concluding remarks. "Tonight, I am giving you a bold new charge.”

Click here to see all speeches from last week's Governor’s Summit on Higher Education.