A "Scorecard" for U.S. Higher Education

Dear Colleagues and Students,

In his State of the Union address, President Obama announced the creation of a “Scorecard” for American colleges and universities. The aim is to provide prospective students and their families with a brief snapshot of some measures of institutional cost and quality. The University of Kentucky’s Scorecard is available here.

As you can see, our University is on the right side of the national average on cost and student borrowing. The Scorecard also reflects the work we must do on our graduation rate.

In addition, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities provides substantially more information across a range of indicators of institutional strength. The University of Kentucky’s page is available here.

You can search other institutions here.

Finally, the Kentucky General Assembly is currently considering House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 13, which would “Direct the Legislative Research Commission to establish a task force to study postsecondary education appropriations and student financial aid; identify areas to be studied and task force membership; require findings and recommendations to be reported by November 29, 2013.”

Along with this dialogue about increased transparency of higher education finance, there is increasing interest among policy-makers in Kentucky and across the country about tying state appropriations for postsecondary institutions to performance. We welcome this increased assessment of the quality of our work. As a public institution, we gladly share information for review by policy-makers, taxpayers, and prospective students and their families. The data makes clear what we learned from the University Review Committee I established in Fall 2011 and from discussions with our Board of Trustees and across campus. There is much to be proud of at the University of Kentucky. But there is much work to do as we focus our energies on improving the undergraduate and graduate student experience, strengthen our research enterprise, and expand our service to the Commonwealth.

Eli Capilouto