1. Streamline transfers from community colleges
Students who want to move on to a four-year institution after a community-college experience often lose credits, which equate to time and money. But some states, such as Louisiana andFlorida, have created comprehensive “articulation agreements” to make the transition more efficient.
2. Speed up the time it takes to get a degree
More colleges and universities are creating dual-enrollment programs where high school students can earn college credits for free. At Tallahassee Community College in Florida, which enrolls about 15,000 students, nearly 25 percent arrive with more than 20 such credits.
3. Tie some state funding to cost-reducing measures
In Indiana, for example, state funding incentives have prompted institutions to improve degree completion and the success of at-risk students. Recently, the state decided to start rewarding successful remediation strategies and programs that align with the needs of the state’s economic development.
4. Make courses cheaper, and better, with technology
Working with teams of faculty, colleges are starting to change how big-lecture courses are delivered – taking advantage of instructional technology and freeing up educators for more quality interactions with students.
More than 150 large-scale course redesigns have occurred with help from the National Center for Academic Transformation, reducing costs by an average of 37 percent, said the center’s president and CEO, Carol Twigg, on Thursday. At the same time, student and faculty satisfaction has gone up, and student learning outcomes have improved in 72 percent of the courses (while remaining flat in the rest), she said.
5. Give students more money – and help them manage their finances
Iowa State University, for one, held a fundraising campaign and dedicated more than a quarter of the $867 million in gifts to scholarships. The university increased annual scholarship dollars from $9 million in 2004 to $21 million in 2011, said ISU President Steven Leath on Thursday.
But loans will still be a big part of most students’ approach to financing college, and Iowa State is also trying to help them better manage that process, since surveys have shown that many students don’t understand the implications of the debt they’ve taken on.
“Our financial-award notice letters to students now include – very prominently – their current indebtedness and how much their payments will be after graduation based upon their borrowing trends. The notice also emphasizes that the loans are optional and encourages the use of other methods to pay for their education,” Mr. Leath said.
Moreover, Iowa State is one of only five major universities with a full-service counseling clinic that offers financial-literacy courses and individualized financial advice.
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