The Lumina Foundation, in pursuit of its goal to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality college degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025, has announced that it will award $9 million in grants to help seven states improve their higher education excellence and efficiency.
The grants, which will be contingent on a year-long trial period, will be paid over four years to Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. These states will use the money to develop programs that reward students and institutions for degree completion, as well as to develop cost-effective models for serving greater numbers of students.
The grants are contingent upon the states’ ability to use public funding to increase the overall number of college graduates; to educate and train students in innovative and affordable ways; and to identify institutional and operational efficiencies as well as cost savings for reinvestment, in order to better serve undergraduates.
"This round of grants represents Lumina’s next steps in advancing a national agenda for raising the level of productivity within higher education," said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. "Momentum is building to serve greater numbers of students by maximizing the use of existing resources and ensuring quality. These grants will move us toward a deeper understanding of how we can implement policies and practices that elicit more value from our shared investment in higher education."
In addition to these grants, the Lumina Foundation has also released a guide for state policymakers and higher education leaders across the country – titled Four Steps to Finish First in Higher Education – to help engage more states in the pursuit of improving higher education.