The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) will distribute nearly $21.7 million in performance funding to the 14 state-owned universities this year.

PASSHE’s Board of Governors established the performance funding program five years ago to reward the universities for demonstrating success and continued improvement in key areas related to student achievement, university excellence and operational efficiency. The amount of funding awarded to the universities has been increased every year, from $2 million in the first year of the program to an amount equivalent to 5 percent of PASSHE’s base appropriation from the Commonwealth this year.

The performance funding program has been refined each year since its inception, but the focus has remained the same – encouraging the universities to improve both in the classroom and in all of their daily operations, and rewarding them when they do. PASSHE is among only a few public university systems in the nation to offer performance funding.

“Performance funding is a key component of our efforts to have the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education take its place among the nation’s leading systems of public universities,” said Chancellor Judy G. Hample. “This program is helping drive PASSHE in its pursuit of excellence, and is another example of how seriously we take our responsibility to be fully accountable to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”

The universities must demonstrate an improved level of performance on a series of “indicators” in order to receive funding under the program. The indicators include student retention and graduation rates, degrees awarded, instructional cost per student and the percentage of instructional faculty with terminal degrees in their discipline, among others.

The universities qualified for a share of the funding based on their own improvement on a set of eight performance measures, how well they fared compared to their own set of peer institutions outside of PASSHE on those same measures, and, for the first time, their performance in regard to Systemwide goals. The Board made several minor adjustments to the program criteria at its meeting last week.

As in past years, the distribution of the funds will be adjusted based on institutional size. The $21.7 million pool for 2004-05 will be distributed as follows:

Bloomsburg, $2,183,685; California, $1,707,156; Cheyney, $1,313,252; Clarion, $1,400,726; East Stroudsburg, $601,746; Edinboro, $675,523; Indiana, $1,486,692; Kutztown, $2,060,614; Lock Haven, $843,093; Mansfield, $564,432; Millersville, $2,841,413; Shippensburg, $2,243,210; Slippery Rock, $1,620,139; and West Chester, $2,130,071.

For more information on the performance funding program, please go to: www.passhe.edu.

With nearly 106,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. The 14 PASSHE universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 400,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.