Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: March 11, 2004

UT System News Release

AUSTIN – The University of Texas System unveiled on Thursday an innovative and trend-setting accountability report that presents the most comprehensive statistical portrait ever developed for Texas higher education institutions.

The Accountability and Performance Report for 2003-04 is designed as a guide to the public and policymakers on how well the system and its 15 campuses are carrying out their responsibilities, as well as an aid for administrators in planning.

The 360-page report was presented to the Board of Regents on Thursday and will be posted on the
U.T. System website later this month ( www.utsystem.edu ). It includes information and analysis on how the system and its campuses add value, contribute to state goals, and compare with institutions outside the system.

Charles Miller, chairman of the Board of Regents, commented: “This report lays the groundwork for a new era of transparency and accountability in Texas higher education. On behalf of the Board of Regents, I wish to commend the system administration and the campuses for their commitment to this initiative.”

Chancellor Mark G. Yudof said the report goes well beyond current reporting requirements from the state, the federal government, and others. “The campuses and the system administration have always tracked their performance in many areas, but we have never had an accountability plan as centralized, consistent, and detailed as this one, nor one that provides the public with as broad a window on university operations. We believe we have produced a program for higher education accountability in Texas that can serve as a ‘best practices' model for the state and, indeed, the nation.”

Yudof also announced that the U.T. System will sponsor a national symposium on accountability in higher education, to be held in Austin in late 2004 or early 2005.

The accountability plan and the report, which will be issued annually, were developed by a system-wide group of administrative leaders and faculty from each U.T. institution, led by Geri Malandra, associate vice chancellor for accountability.

The report focuses on five areas: student access and success; teaching, research, and health care excellence; service and collaborations with communities; organizational efficiency and productivity; and institutional profiles, including rankings and other comparisons with peer institutions. To gauge progress in these areas, the report provides up to five years of information on 70 accountability measures for the system's general academic universities, 50 measures for the health-related institutions, and 15 measures for the system administration.

Among the findings in the report are the following:

• Six of the nine academic campuses are ahead of the state's “Closing the Gaps” targets for student enrollment, and five of the six health campuses are ahead of the targets. “Closing the Gaps” is a statewide initiative to increase higher education enrollment and graduation rates.
• U.T. institutions collectively exceed the statewide proportion of Hispanic students but collectively lag behind the statewide enrollment of African-Americans.
• Five-year and six-year graduation rates are increasing at most academic institutions, but only U.T. Austin and U.T. Dallas are above the national average for the six-year graduation rate.
• Research expenditures increased 57 percent from 1999 to 2003 (from $925 million to $1.45 billion), with the health campuses generating two-thirds of the total.
• The ratio of students to faculty has increased at seven of the nine academic campuses in the past five years. The ratio has remained constant at U.T. Permian Basin and has declined slightly at
  U.T. San Antonio.
• Administrative costs as a percentage of total expenditures range from 6.3 percent to 15.8 percent at the academic campuses and from 4 percent to 10 percent at the health campuses.

The report also presents detailed data on budgets; enrollment, including minority enrollment; degrees awarded; affordability and financial aid; student persistence and graduation rates; pass rates for licensure and certification exams; student opinion on the quality of advising and teaching; research funding trends; faculty endowments; faculty awards and honors; technology transfer; faculty and staff ethnicity and gender; and research and educational collaborations with external organizations.

Also, faculty salary trends; post-tenure review trends; clinical and hospital patient care; production of certified teachers; public school collaborations; economic impact; trends in historically underutilized businesses; private donations; citizen awareness and satisfaction; bond ratings; fiscal performance; professional development of faculty and staff; and construction projects.

Over the coming year, the U.T. System will work with other university systems and state policymakers to ensure that the report is aligned with the accountability requirements to be developed statewide under an executive order issued by Gov. Rick Perry in January.

Statement of Gov. Rick Perry: Regarding University of Texas System Accountability and Performance Report (3/11/04)

Dr. Malandra's presentation to the Board (PowerPoint || PDF)

Webcast of the special meeting: accountability presentation and discussion (3/11/04)

Gov. Rick Perry Directs University Regents to Set Accountability Standards (news release, 1/22/04)

Gov. Perry's Executive Order (RP31)

Statement by Chancellor Mark G. Yudof: Governor's Accountability Directive (1/22/04)

Accountability website

Highlights of the Report

Performance Measures (used in the report)

Other news from the Special Meeting of the Board