The UNC System and Board of Governors approved a $910 million plan to increase the graduation rate of college students, develop more efficiency in schools and fund new research.
The five-year plan is designed to increase the percentage of adults with four-year degrees in North Carolina from 29 percent to 32 percent. The UNC System hopes to achieve this goal by increasing community college transfers and recruiting more student veterans, active military and those with unfinished bachelor’s degrees, according to the News and Observer.
The UNC System and Board of Governors will be guided by two committees: an Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions, consisting of business, education and government leaders from across the state, as well as selected Board members, UNC Chancellors and faculty leadership. Among them is UNC President Tom Ross.
“The plan is not meant to stress areas in which the University System already excels, but to think differently about how education is delivered and what emerging areas are ripe for development,” Ross said.
The new initiative is also meant to respond to the hard hits of state needs and economic challenges in the United States, including strained budgets, demands for accountability, changes in the student population and technology.
The UNC System wants to show their commitment to North Carolina by turning the effect of economic weakness into progress by initiating the five-year plan. The UNC System emphasizes that new arrangements need to be made in order to better students and the state as a whole.
The preparation will include online instruction, more standardized benchmarks for learning and measuring that learning through student testing.
Though the new direction of the UNC System may seem appealing to some, some University professors are critical of the changes. The UNC System’s strategy may intervene with the faculty’s role to make decisions about curriculum and assessment of learning. Fourteen faculty-governing bodies from across the state have brought up their concerns with resolutions in recent days.
Campuses will have to collaborate more on purchasing and other business functions, including the checking of financial accounts in order for the system to operate more efficiently. There will be system wide guidelines on instructional productivity and financial incentives to drive campuses toward finding cost savings.
The new strategy brings change, as well as a cost. It calls for an additional $267 million in annual spending by the fifth year or $200 million after campus savings are taken into account. The system received $2.5 billion from the state in the last fiscal year.
According to Fred Eshelman, UNC System board member who led the data analysis, 39 percent of the total cost will be offset by efficiencies and cost avoidance by the changes in the plan.
By producing more graduates, the return on investment will be an estimated $100 million per year, and $3 billion in lifetime earnings of the additional graduates. Funding for research could result in an added 33,000 related jobs for North Carolina by 2028.
UNC leaders clearly stated the strategic plan is a “living document” that will be revised and tweaked. If the legislature does not fund the initiatives, then the goals would have to be revised.
“The strategies in this plan will help North Carolina become more competitive both nationally and internationally by positioning our state to win the war for top talent,” Ross said.
