By Jim Turner | News Service of Florida
The University of Central Florida offered the best value in producing alumni with degrees, according to a recent efficiency audit of the state’s public universities.
New College of Florida, the hallmark of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative overhaul of higher education, landed at the opposite end of the spectrum in an analysis of universities’ cost to produce a degree, the report from the Florida Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, found.
The “key metric” for measuring institutions’ overall efficiency was based on a calculation of universities’ cost structure relative to the number of degrees produced during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024.
“From an investment perspective, the metric is a good measure of relative value among Florida universities,” the report said.
The findings confirmed that “Florida’s universities are the best value in the country,” according to Ben Watkins, the director of the Florida Division of Bond Finance.
The report offered a “framework” for schools to individually conduct much deeper reviews, such as determining costs per major, Watkins, who oversaw the audit, told the state university system’s Board of Governors on Thursday.
“What we need is a change in mindset in terms of the approach at the institution level, college-by-college, evaluating efficiencies, and that’s where that’s properly done,” Watkins said. “We need to build financial resiliency and be prepared for funding reductions. That’s what you do as a business enterprise. You’ve got to be capable of changing as the environment changes, and it doesn’t have to be complicated.”
The audit showed Sarasota-based New College at the top of the cost-per-degree chart, at $494,715, followed by $154,213 at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland and $150,729 at the University of Florida, the state’s flagship university.
The Republican-dominated state Legislature pumped money into the small liberal arts New College as DeSantis undertook a revamp of the school starting in 2023 with a series of changes to the board of trustees. The trustees brought in former state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran as president to recraft the campus into a classical-style institution modeled in part after Hillsdale College, a private liberal-arts school in Michigan.
At $46,548, UCF, which has a much larger student population than New College, had the lowest operating expenses to produce a degree, weighing in just below $48,847 at Florida International University and $49,355 at the University of West Florida.
The average for the state system was $78,781, the audit found.
The low cost for a UCF degree came with the school showing just nine full-time employees per 100 students, the highest student-to-employee ratio in the system.
The systemwide student-to-employee ratio was 19.6 per 100 students, with New College the highest at 49.8 per 100 students, followed by UF at 39.7.
In highlighting Florida’s high rankings among public universities over the past few years, DeSantis and other state officials have boasted of providing high-quality, low-cost education.
According to the report, the average tuition at Florida schools — $6,360 — was almost half the $11,610 average for public universities throughout the nation, and a fraction of the $43,350.
average cost of tuition charged by private universities.
Meanwhile, the report showed that 74 percent of students earning bachelor’s degrees quickly landed a job or sought a higher degree.
Florida Poly was atop the list with 81 percent of those earning a degree finding employment or a venue to pursue a higher degree, followed by UWF at 80 percent, UF at 79 percent and Florida State University and FIU both at 78 percent. New College had the lowest mark at 65 percent, followed by Florida A&M University at 70 percent and UCF and Florida Gulf Coast University both at 71 percent.
The report, which took eight months to compile, also put New College’s per-student operating costs for the 2024 fiscal year at $83,000, followed by the University of Florida at $45,765, Florida A&M at $26,891 and FSU at $26.615.
UCF’s per-student operating costs were the lowest, at $12,172, with UWF coming in at $12,804, FGCU at $14,401 and the University of North Florida at $14,532.
The system average was $22,217.
Watkins noted that some schools’ operating costs were slightly skewed, as some on-campus expenses include programs that go beyond educating students. He pointed to UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, which is a federal-state-county partnership, and UF Health Shands Hospital.
Statewide, 68 percent of university costs were tied to compensation and employee benefits, with services and supplies at 22 percent, and scholarships, fellowships and waivers at 8 percent. Utilities and communications costs made up 2 percent.
When the report was first released on Oct. 29, DeSantis highlighted past efforts by the state DOGE and the university system to cancel or repurpose $33 million in grants and services related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Targeted programs included a $1.5 million grant “centered around environmental justice and equitable and inclusive curriculum for civil engineers” and a $1.3 million grant that promoted “inclusive and equitable practices for women and minority racial groups and promoting inclusion and equity in classrooms.”
The report attributed Florida’s comparatively low tuition costs on the “significant state investment in higher education” and emphasized the importance of performance-based funding for state universities, which this year made up approximately 16 percent of total state spending on the university system.
Watkins on Thursday advised the Board of Governors to push lawmakers to boost performance funding, which rewards universities based on a variety of outcomes such as graduation and retention rates.
“The legislature should consider increasing the amount that’s dedicated to performance funding because of the remarkable impact it’s had on improving student outcomes in Florida,” he said.