Missouri Western met and exceeded all five targets set by the Missouri Department of Higher Education in its performance funding model. The results mean that Missouri Western will receive 100 percent of any new funds appropriated by the legislature during fiscal year 2016.
“Our students, faculty and staff share a commitment to excellence that is reflected in these results,” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president. “During our centennial year in 2015, we will be talking a lot about the role Missouri Western has played in transforming lives, and I’m pleased that these objective measures demonstrate that transformative power.”
Missouri Western’s performance measures are: freshman to sophomore retention rate; six-year cohort graduation rates; improvements in assessments of general education; percent of total education and general expenditures expended on the core mission; and the number of students each year who have participated in research, projects or creative activities that have resulted in a peer-reviewed publication, presentation, performance, exhibit or external award. Four of the five measures improved from the previous year, and all were above the benchmark rates.
Fiscal year 2016 will be the third year that colleges and universities receive new funding according to their performance on five measures. Four of the measures are common to all institutions and one is selected by individual institutions to reflect its mission. This is the first year that Missouri Western has met all five performance measures.
“We met these benchmarks because we have faculty and staff dedicated to serving their students, the university and the region, and because we have students who are dedicated to getting the most out of the opportunities a Missouri Western education offers,” Dr. Vartabedian said.