North Carolina is providing comparable support for its research universities when weighed against other states, according to a report conducted by the Board of Governors.
The report--mandated by the General Assembly--was designed to document whether any UNC system university had been funded unfairly and how much money it would take to establish funding equity. Five universities were identified as needing a total of $21 million in annual appropriations to correct past funding inequities.
But Carolina, according to the study, has fared comparatively well.
Crunched numbers
The report warns that making comparisons among research universities is difficult because of the complexity of their multiple funding sources, budget codes and varying services.
But the report attempts to do just that.
Compared to its peers across the country, UNC receives about 25 percent more funding per full-time-equivalent student, according to the data contained in the report.
As one part of a wide range of comparisons, the study examined funding during the fiscal years 1993-94 and 1994-95 at Carolina and compared it to funding at peer institutions.
For the comparison, only revenue from state appropriations and tuition and fees was considered. Funding for public service activities was deleted.
The study found that Carolina's support averaged about 28 percent greater than its peers in 1993-94 and 24 percent greater in 1994-95. N.C. State's funding was 10 percent above its peers in the first year and 2 percent below in the second, according to the report.
Yet another measure showed UNC received about 6 percent less funding than it would if allocation methods used by several other states were used in North Carolina.
The comparison applied funding formulas in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Texas to North Carolina's university system. The formulas, according to the report, are regarded widely as equitable methods to distribute state funding among a variety of universities.
When North Carolina's funding was plugged into the formulas, Carolina was found to be receiving 6 percent less than it would compared to an average of the other states' funding formulas, according to the report.
Carolina also had slightly less funding when measured in a comparison of peers within the Southeast, according to the report.
Finding inequities
The study also included a measure in which similar UNC system schools' funding was compared to each other.
The result was a wide range of comparative funding measures, all of which were averaged together to come up with a percentage figure meant to represent each school's level of funding compared to what the study considered to be equitable. Carolina, according to the final average, received about 3 percent more than the study's formula considered equitable.
The report showed that the five schools were underfunded. These are the schools and amounts needed to correct the inequities:
Appalachian State $3.4 million
East Carolina $3.1 million
UNC-Charlotte $5.1 million
UNC-Greensboro $6.8 million
UNC-Wilmington $2.6 million
Funding inequities identified by the report largely were the result of a state budget policy over the past 25 years that said support services associated with enrollment growth would be funded at only half their full cost. As a result, the fastest-growing schools since 1972 have suffered the greatest funding inequities, the report said.
In it's report, the Board of Governors said the legislature should consider appropriating the money needed to eliminate the inequities at the five schools.
The report said the state's historically black universities in recent years had received above-average funding levels as the university attempted to correct past inequities.
A second phase of the study, due to the General Assembly in November, will suggest a new funding model that would be designed to avoid future inequities.
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