Negotiating a New Relationship with the State: The Virginia Experience

States’ Potential Enrollment of Adult Students: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

“…This suggests that where states are endeavoring to increase the enrollment of adult students, price increases at public 4-year colleges should be taken into careful consideration. This is particularly important in light of research and scholarship over the past decade documenting the relative decline in state support for higher education (Hovey 1999;Breneman and Kneedler 2006) and the increasing reliance on increased tuition revenue by public colleges and universities (Weisbrod et al 2008). This finding also adds to previous research on price sensitivity Heller 1999;Bowen et al 2005) in higher education, as it demonstrates that the relationship between tuition price and potential enrollment for adult students is consistent with earlier research on price sensitivity for other demographic cohorts.…”

Higher Education

“…Over the past two decades in Virginia, the Commonwealth's 2 postsecondary institutions have pursued initiatives in negotiation with the legislature to increase institutional autonomy and influence over a variety of substantive and procedural policies (Breneman & Kneedler, 2006;Couturier, 2006;Leslie & Berdahl, 2006). The Virginia case has been widely heralded and analyzed for its relevance in understanding university autonomy and contemporary authority relations in higher education.…”

“…Despite the widespread perception in the postsecondary research and policy literature of the ascendance of market authority in higher education, the bill signed into law in 2005 by Governor Mark Warner reaffirmed the strength of the State and the power of the public mission of higher education. At the same time, it demonstrated the importance of market revenue in emerging state planning for higher education and the legitimacy of a significant degree of institutional autonomy in university governance (Couturier, 2006;Breneman & Kneedler, 2006;Buer et al, 2007).…”

“…As in many other political contests over the organization and governance of public postsecondary institutions in the United States during the past two decades, the Virginia case has its roots in the adoption of neoliberal State finance policies and the subsequent general reduction in direct state aid to postsecondary institutions. Breneman and Kneedler (2006) note that aid from the Commonwealth to public institutions declined from 17% of the state's general fund budget in 1985 to 10% in 2004. In 1990 the state of Virginia provided approximately $170 million annually to the U.Va, while in 2004 that allocation had decreased to about $105 million.…”

“…Tuition and fees at Virginia Tech were just under $7,000 while at William and Mary tuition and fees totaled $8,500. In the competition for students, the tuition charged by Virginia's public insitutions has long been considered by many policy analysts to be well "below market" (Breneman & Kneedler, 2006).…”