Universities ahead on accountability

I want to acknowledge Beth Kassab’s column “Let’s rank Florida universities on performance” (Orlando Sentinel, Tuesday) and provide a little more context.

During the past four years, the Board of Governors has worked side-by-side with our universities to make accountability a top priority for the State University System. Through our nationally recognized accountability framework, we track universities on important benchmarks such as graduation rates, student-retention rates and student-to-faculty ratios. This information is available not only to elected officials, policymakers and members of the media, but it is also online for students and parents who want to learn more about our universities.

Just this year, Florida’s accountability framework was lauded by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni as “an example for the nation.” Last year, the State Higher Education Executive Officers called it “a leading example nationally” of the way public university systems and governing boards are making university data more comprehensive, easier to understand and relevant to more stakeholders.

We are now collecting data on cost-per-degree, post-graduation employment and graduate salaries as part of our effort to tie university funding to performance. We are proud of the work we’ve done, and continually look for ways to improve it.

As state and national leaders place a heightened focus on higher-education accountability, Floridians can also take pride in knowing that their university system is already well ahead of the game.