The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) will distribute $31.2 million in performance funding to the 14 state-owned universities this year.

PASSHE’s Board of Governors established the performance funding program six 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 7 percent of PASSHE’s base appropriation from the Commonwealth this year.

The performance funding program was developed to encourage the Universities to improve both student achievement and success and in all of their daily management operations, and to reward them when they do. PASSHE was among the first public university systems in the nation to offer performance funding.

“Performance funding is an increasingly important component of PASSHE’s ongoing effort to enhance the quality of education students receive at our Universities,” said PASSHE Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth M. Jarin. “This program not only helps drive PASSHE in its pursuit of excellence, but also demonstrates how seriously we take our responsibility to be fully accountable to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”

The Universities each year 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 full-time tenured and tenure-track instructional faculty with terminal degrees in their discipline, among others.

The Universities this year qualified for a share of the funding based on their own improvement on a set of eight groups of performance measures, how well they fared compared to their own set of peer institutions outside of PASSHE on those same measures, and, on their performance in relation to Systemwide goals.

“Performance funding has been a major driver in achieving higher levels of University performance,” said PASSHE Chancellor Judy G. Hample. “The System Accountability and Performance Funding programs were developed to measure what matters most to students and Commonwealth taxpayers – proof of significant returns on the dollars invested in public higher education.”

As in past years, the distribution of the funds has been adjusted based on institutional size. The $31.2 million performance funding pool for 2005-06 will be distributed as follows:

Bloomsburg, $2,678,082; California, $2,201,786; Cheyney, $794,506; Clarion, $1,540,631; East Stroudsburg, $1,218,694; Edinboro, $1,200,308; Indiana, $3,442,475; Kutztown, $1,679,646; Lock Haven, $1,121,712; Mansfield, $1,023,575; Millersville, $4,562,280; Shippensburg, $2,550,224; Slippery Rock, $2,723,500; and West Chester, $4,437,281.

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. More than 405,000 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.