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Oregon s Higher Education Coordinating Commission voted Thursday to make updates to the Student Success and Completion Model the model it uses to allocate state funding to Oregon s seven public universities.
The Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission voted on Thursday to make key changes to the way state funding is allocated to Oregon’s seven public universities.
This is the first time the commission has made any changes to the funding model called the Student Success and Completion Model, or SSCM since it was first implemented in 2015.
Many of the changes are aiming to simplify or clarify the model. Others are meant to incentivize collaboration and equity, including adding a “bonus” for institutions that graduate Oregon community college transfer students. The HECC also approved increasing an existing bonus for institutions that graduate Oregonians from underrepresented groups.
Alan Sylvestre
Originally published on February 9, 2021 5:10 pm
With some Oregon public universities officially passing freshman application deadlines, two of the state’s largest institutions are reporting an increase in applicants for the upcoming fall term.
The University of Oregon has received a record number of freshman applications for this upcoming fall term. UO said Monday nearly 33,000 students had applied for fall 2021 admission.
This comes after the COVID-19 pandemic caused an enrollment decline at most of Oregon’s public universities last fall. UO saw about 800 fewer total enrolled students last fall compared to fall 2019, according to data from Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
Originally published on February 1, 2021 3:41 pm
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission and the Oregon Department of Corrections have entered into a new agreement to continue providing inmates with educational programming through community colleges across the state.
This comes after uncertainty last October when the Oregon DOC said it would be cutting ties with the six community colleges it contracts with. ODOC said at the time that was a move to bring its adult education programming in-house. Corrections officials had said it would help address the agency’s budget shortfall and an inconsistency of services they said the department was receiving through the current contracts.
PENDLETON â More than two months after the Oregon Department of Corrections informally agreed to a new deal with the stateâs community colleges, Blue Mountain Community College is closing in on a new contract to continue offering adult education classes at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution and Two Rivers Correctional Institution.
As a part of the new deal, BMCC no longer negotiates directly with the state prison system to pay for its programs. Instead, the DOC now has an agreement with the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, which is negotiating contracts with BMCC and the other community colleges that offer adult education courses in state prisons.
Oregon s colleges and universities will get a needed boost from the newest federal COVID-19 relief and omnibus bill signed Dec. 27 by President Donald Trump.
The funds from the Consolidated Appropriations Act s $22.7 billion dedicated to higher education across the U.S. comes at a time when low enrollment and other budget problems are cause for concern for Oregon s higher education institutions.
Oregon s Higher Education Coordinating Commission estimates $224 million will come to the state from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, anticipating $102 million to public universities, $97 million for community colleges and $28 million for private institutions.
But it s not enough to fix the looming budget concerns of many colleges and universities, HECC Executive Director Ben Cannon said.