State Governance, Politics, and Mandatory Student Fees: Navigating a New Reality in the University System of Georgia
State Governance, Politics, and Mandatory Student Fees: Navigating a New Reality in the University System of Georgia
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国家治理、政治和强制性学生费用：探索佐治亚大学系统的新现实
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.2008842
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发表时间：
2011
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Adam Burke Sterritt
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Adam Burke Sterritt
在全球经济衰退期间，入学人数的迅速增加，加上国家收入的下降，国家拨款的削减以及教育学生成本的增加，使美国公立高等教育机构陷入财政危机。各机构正在寻找新的收入来源，并越来越多地转向强制性学生收费，以帮助填补差距。在格鲁吉亚，公立高等教育由格鲁吉亚大学系统董事会（USG BOR）管理，这是一个高度政治化的机构，有权在机构委员会的重要投入下制定强制性的学生收费标准。本研究的目的是发现在机构和国家管理机构的高级官员的角度在美国政府的强制性学生收费的作用。本文回顾了有关强制性学生收费的使用和管理的文献，研究了美国政府强制性学生收费率、政策和程序，并提供了来自格鲁吉亚大学系统和一个样本美国政府机构的高级官员的定性数据。美国政府的经济和政治条件显著影响学生收费政策和费率。在这项研究中的例子包括在基于成绩的希望奖学金，强制性学生费用的国家绩效审计的变化，以及在立法机关和USG BOR领导层的变化。这项研究发现，强制性的学生费用被用来抵消国家拨款的下降，格鲁吉亚的大学系统，无论是在系统和机构层面。美国政府的学费正在急剧增加，最重要的是来自《人权法案》规定的特殊机构费用和强制性学生费用的激增，以资助公私建筑企业。《人权法案》规定的院校特别费用是研究的最重要发现，因为它绕过了费用审批程序，成为资助副政府院校的一般运作和学术使命的不可或缺的财务工具。国家治理通过利益相关者的复杂网络的参与，在强制性学生收费决策中发挥着重要作用，这增加了使机构和系统的强制性学生收费过程复杂化的政治层面。
Rapidly increasing enrollments, combined with declining state revenues, cuts to state appropriations, and the increasing cost of educating students have coalesced during a global economic recession, leaving American institutions of public higher education in financial crisis. Institutions are looking for new sources of revenue and are increasingly turning to mandatory student fees to help fill the gap. In Georgia, public higher education is governed by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents (USG BOR), a highly politicized body that has the power to set mandatory student fee rates with significant input from institutional committees. This study aimed to discover the perspective of senior level officials in both the institution and the state governing body on the role of mandatory student fees in the USG. This paper reviews the literature informing the use and governance of mandatory student fees, examines USG mandatory student fee rates, policies, and procedures, and provides qualitative data from senior officials at the University System of Georgia and one sample USG institution.The economic and political conditions of the USG significantly affect student fee policy and rates. Examples in this study include changes in the merit-based HOPE Scholarship, a state performance audit of mandatory student fees, and leadership changes in the legislature and USG BOR. This study found that mandatory student fees are being utilized to offset the decline in state appropriations to the University System of Georgia, both at the system and institutional level. Fee rates are increasing dramatically in the USG, most significantly from a BOR-mandated special institutional fee and the proliferation of mandatory student fees to fund public private construction ventures. The BOR-mandated special institutional fee is the most significant finding of the study as it circumvented the fee approval process and has become an indispensable financial tool in funding the general operation and academic mission of USG institutions. State governance plays an important role in mandatory student fee decisions through the involvement of a complex web of stakeholders, which adds layers of politics that complicate the mandatory student fee process for the institutions as well as for the system.