Update: We have updated a portion of this story to detail enrollment issues. Overall enrollment was down this past academic year, however there was an increase in new freshmen and transfer enrollment. We had previously reported the decline involved the new academic standards, however the decline is due to a variety of factors listed below and enrollment under the new academic standards has increased. We apologize for the error and any confusion.
Murray State’s president said the university is “in good shape” as performance funding goes into effect next academic year. Bob Davies outlined parameters in a ‘university update’ Thursday afternoon that include increasing the number of Bachelor’s degrees earned, an emphasis on STEM+H degrees and greater focus on low-income and minority students among other factors.
The state’s public universities will compete for 5% of state higher ed funding to based on this model. Davies said MSU is very close to the median in terms of meeting the metrics compared to other universities. “So that puts us in a good position to hold steady, but - as I need to warn everybody - holding steady is not the course of action because every other university is going to be trying to improve and increase these numbers and we need to be doing the same,” he said.
Davies said funds are distributed based on performance relative to the other universities and changes over a three-year rolling average. He said Murray State’s strengths include recruitment and retention and opportunities lie in student progression, transfers and online enrollment.
He also recapped tuition and revenue increasesrecently approved by the Board of Regents. He said the decision to raise tuition and fees by 5%was in part due to a potentially “dicey” upcoming budget session in January, citing recent shortfall estimates.
In the university budget set for Board of Regents approval in early June, fixed-cost increases of $1.8 million is expected, with much of that going towards salaries. Funding is also being allocated to cyber insurance and a diversity hiring pool.
There is another $4.1 million in ‘reallocations’ that include credit from vacancies, online tuition revenue, FLSA allocation reduction and cuts averaging 1% in the executive units.
“We are enrollment driven,” Davies said, estimating around 70% of the university’s revenue based on enrollment and adding that this will continue to grow over time as the market for higher education becomes more competitive. Murray State's overall enrollment is slightly down due to a variety of factors: international enrollment as part of a national trend, graduate enrollment is also down and students admitted under previous academic standards (before two years ago) who have had a lower retention rate are matriculating through the system (Davies has said there are another two years before this enrollment pressure is 'completely negated'). However, new freshmen and transfer enrollment was up this year.
The official enrollment for this academic year as of last November is 10,496 (1,502 new first-time freshmen and 605 new transfer students). There are 8,887 undergraduates and 1,608 graduate students. The total is down around 4%, or 500 students.
Spring 2016-17 numbers:
Davies said he wants the university to be more aggressive in reaching out to students in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
Murray State is readying to graduate 1,192 students next week.
This story has been updated.
