Nov 20, 2020, 11:22 AM
by
Elizabeth Liverman
The State Council for Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV) released four new reports that provide strategies to further align funding and policies to meet the Commonwealth’s goal of becoming the best-educated state by 2030. The reports focus on improving affordability, completion, talent development, quality and equity.
Contact: Laura Osberger
lauraosberger@schev.edu
(804) 387-5191
November 20, 2020
For immediate release
RICHMOND — The State Council for Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV) released four new reports that provide strategies to further align funding and policies to meet the Commonwealth’s goal of becoming the best-educated state by 2030. The reports focus on improving affordability, completion, talent development, quality and equity.
FY 2022 Budget and Policy Recommendations. These recommendations seek to maintain the momentum established in the 2020 General Assembly session and recognize the considerable changes that have occurred since then, with a global pandemic and a heightened awareness of social justice concerns. The proposed general fund budget recommendations total approximately $136.6 million for FY 2022 that the General Assembly passed in the 2020 regular session and later unallotted. It prioritizes the funding into three priority groups, depending on the availability of additional state funds in FY 2022. In addition to the budget recommendations, the Council recommends the Governor and General Assembly may wish to consider several non-budgetary initiatives that align with efforts to improve equity, affordability and support transformation.
2020 Update on the Review of Financial Aid Formulas and Awarding Practices. This study provides an update to an initial review completed last year of the Commonwealth's need-based financial aid program that provides approximately $223 million annually to help in-state students at public institutions. The updated report focuses on a recommendation to merge the two state financial aid programs in the coming year to simplify the process for students and institutions. It also includes recommendations related to institutional use of tuition revenues used for financial aid and unfunded scholarships.
Higher Education Funding: Baselines and Trends in Education and General Support. This report provides a history of higher education funding for education and general support services -- referred to as E&G support. This includes trends in state funding, tuition and fees, expenditures and comparisons to other states.
Plan for Implementing a Statewide Survey of Expenditures by Program and Academic Discipline. This plan, developed at the request of the General Assembly, provides an overview of current initiatives related to tracking expenditures by program in Virginia and in other states. It includes options to implement a survey and estimated costs.
The full reports and all SCHEV reports are available at schev.edu/reports.
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The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia is the state’s coordinating agency for higher education. With The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, SCHEV is dedicated to making Virginia the best-educated state by 2030. For more on The Virginia Plan: schev.edu/TheVirginiaPlan.