What Do State Appropriations Buy a University?

Andrew Gillen:

Colorado State University-Global Campus was in the news last fall as the first college to offer credit for a MOOC course. No one has yet taken up CSU-Global on its offer, though keep in mind it was a single course in computer science.

But offering credit for a MOOC is not the only uncommon practice at CSU-Global:

CSU-Global is a public university that is entirely online - no labs, football stadium, dorms, etc.

It doesn't receive any state appropriations. After some state startup capital, CSU-Global operates without state funding and administrators say it is financially sustainable. (The average per-student state appropriation for a four-year public university is around $8,000.)

CSU-Global relies entirely on adjunct professors; no tenured faculty.
It has a very small administration--72 full-time employees for 8,500 students.
To enroll in CSU-Global, students already must have 12 credit hours from another university.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 16, 2013 12:21 AM
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