Date of Award

December 2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership - Higher Education

Committee Member

Robert Knoeppel

Committee Member

Michelle Boettcher

Committee Member

Russ Marion

Committee Member

Cynthia Sims

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the impacts of outcomes-based funding legislation on senior administrator’s resource allocation decision making at public doctoral granting institutions in Colorado. This qualitative study’s participants included five CFOs who were interviewed after the third fiscal year that HB14-1319 had been operating as the funding allocation model in the state. While there has been quantitative research on outcomes-based funding policies and their effectiveness, there are noted gaps in the literature for qualitative studies. To determine the potential impacts to senior administrator’s resource allocation decision making after the introduction and switch to a outcomes-based funding model, a case study approach was utilized.

Through data analysis five common themes were discovered in the CFOs experiences. These themes include: student success measures, accountability, agency status quo, resource/tuition costs, and the politics of funding. These themes contributed to the findings of this study. The findings suggest that HB14-1319 priorities and goals set by the state were already priorities at Colorado doctoral granting institutions. Additionally, these outcomes-based funding goals set by the policy did not have any negative consequences attached to them. and the amount of funding provided by the state was insignificant to elicit a change in resource allocation behavior. The main objective of HB14-1319 was to provide transparency and accountability to the public for overall higher education spending. Lastly, it was found that doctoral granting institutions in Colorado have other sources of funding available to them as revenue.

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