Many states use peer lists for schools

Funding cuts to higher education have prompted many universities to compare themselves to their peers in order to ensure they aren’t losing their competitive edge.

Peer institutions, or universities deemed similar in various respects, have been instrumental in helping UNC-system administrators set costs.

Each school in the system is mandated, by recently implemented tuition guidelines, to keep the cost of tuition within the bottom quarter of its peers.

Other schools that consider UNC-CH a peer use the University as a tool for setting tuition and faculty salaries.

A survey of several of UNC-CH’s peer institutions shows that some of these schools used different methods to determine whether the University was considered a peer institution.

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia and UNC-CH recognize each other as peer institutions.

UVa. considers factors such as retention rates and whether a school is public or private to determine its peer list.

Like UVa., UNC-system institutions include both public and private universities in their peer lists.

While the criteria for picking peer institutions is similar for UVa. and UNC-system schools, the procedure is different.

Jim Alessio, director of higher education restructuring for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, said the council prepares a ranked list of 75 possible peers for public institutions in the state.

Administrators from each Virginia school can reorder their school’s list. The top 25 are deemed peer institutions.

Alessio said schools primarily use their peers to compare faculty salaries, unlike the UNC system which uses its peers for multiple cost saving purposes.

“Prior to doing this in 1987, it was always very difficult to say, ‘What should a faculty salary be?’ This has given some basis on which to make policy decisions,” Alessio said.

University of California

The University of California system also considers UNC-CH a peer for faculty compensation purposes because it is a public research institution.

Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC system, said the state of California has faced substantial budget cuts in recent years.

The decline in state support during the last 20 years has prompted the system to decrease the overall amount spent on each student by 19 percent, according to a 2011 UC budget report.

In 1990, UC students paid 13 percent of their educational cost. Today students pay 49 percent, according to the report.

Klein said peer institutions are also used for a variety of comparisons, such as academics, levels of funding and faculty salaries.

University of Washington

Carol Diem, director of institutional research at the University of Washington, said that state’s school system’s peer institutions are chosen from a list of states created by a governor-appointed task force.

Three different lists of peer institutions have been created, she said.

The most recent list includes prominent research universities with medical schools from seven states with a similar economy to Washington.

Diem said UNC-CH was considered a peer institution in two previously created lists, but North Carolina was not included in the 2006 list of states.

“Our goal is to make sure we have a similar level of funding compared to peers,” Diem said.

UNC-system peers

Bruce Mallette, senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs for the UNC system, said 74 variables were used in determining the system’s latest lists of peer institutions, which were approved by the system’s Board of Governors Oct. 6.

Each UNC-system school’s list has between 15 and 18 peer institutions. Lists must not contain more than two schools from the same state or any other UNC-system schools.

“It allows us to compare apples to apples and not apples to carrots,” Mallette said.

Using the data

Peer institution studies also help universities make a case for a funding increase, on the premise that it is needed for a university to stay competitive.

But because of state budget cuts, administrators say it has been difficult in recent years to request more funding.

Anita Watkins, vice president for government relations for the UNC system, said most lobbying efforts have gone toward protecting existing funding.

“The peer data provides very valuable information for us to do the necessary analysis,” Watkins said. “We are going to use as much data as possible to press our case.”

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