William C. Weiler

Cost-Related Tuition Policies and University Enrollments.

This paper explores the analytical issues which a university would face in implementing a cost-related tuition policy and presents empirical estimates of the impact of implementing such a policy using data from the University of Minnesota. The empirical results suggest that universities can use standard econometric analyses of enrollment demand behavior to reduce considerably the uncertainty about the effects of changes in tuition policy. However, substantial uncertainty remains for some categories of enrollments. In this context the paper addresses the relevant analytical issues in combining incomplete empirical predictions with a procedure of gradual implementation of a cost-related tuition policy and a careful monitoring of enrollments as the policy is implemented.

WHY DO FACULTY MEMBERS LEAVE A UNIVERSITY

This paper uses the results of a survey of tenured faculty members who resigned from the University of Minnesota to analyze the factors that influenced their decisions to leave. The results indicate that the probability of accepting an outside offer is positively related to the expected salary gain, but that other general factors are also important determinants of faculty decision making in this area. However, even with the survey results, we know very little in any systematic sense about specific factors that influence individual faculty decisions, particularly about differences in these factors for those faculty who leave as opposed to those who remain. To analyze faculty retention more completely, we need additional information about the personal circumstances of faculty members who are and are not retention cases and more extensive information on why the retention cases made their eventual choices about staying at or leaving the institution.

A sequential logit model of the access effects of higher education institutions

Abstract Estimating the increase in aceess provided by higher education institutions is an important policy issue. In this paper we consider a model that allows similarity between institutions to enter the choice framework of potential students to analyze this issue. The results indicate that institutions regarded as close substitutes were most affected by establishment of a new school and that only about 20% of the students attending the new school would not have attended an existing institution.

The marginal costs of instruction

This is a study of the costs of instruction in a large public research university. It departs from other work on instructional costs in its attempt to draw inferences about the economic costs of incremental or “marginal” enrollments. Focusing on graduate education, we examine how the costs directly facing faculty differ from those incurred by the institutions administration and legislature as reflected in the budgetary rewards for instruction. These cost differences provide the wherewithal for a university to carry out basic research and other important functions that lack a paying clientele. The study also explores the roles of economic costs in the institutions pricing of graduate education.

An application of the nested multinomial logit model to enrollment choice behavior

Data bases containing information on the socioeconomic characteristics and post-high school activities of large numbers of young people are commonly used in enrollment demand studies. While researchers almost always use the multinomial logit approach to obtain estimates of the effects of the independent variables in this context, this technique has a potentially serious limitation. This study presents an alternative to multinomial logit and contrasts estimated results from the two approaches using data on 446 high-school graduates in a midwestern state. The results are different enough to suggest that researchers should explore alternatives to multinomial logit when using this type of data base.

The Impact of an Institution's Federal Research Grants on the Economy of Its State.

imparted to students and the broader cultural and scholarly contributions to society in general. Universities also contribute economic benefits to their states by attracting funds from agencies outside the state, particularly the federal government. These funds are used to employ researchers and research support personnel at the university. Further, the spending of these funds distributed as salaries and supply and equipment purchases produces a chain of additional spending that generates income and employment beyond the immediate impacts. The estimation of the total economic impact of various types of university expenditures, including research grants, has been undertaken in a number of studies.1 Bourque and Pedersen [3] argue that certain assumptions, particularly the assumption that goods and services are not imported from other states, can lead to an overstatement of the economic impacts. They also warn that care must be taken in associating institu-

A Model for Short-Term Institutional Enrollment Forecasting

The purpose of this paper is to present a model for enrollment forecasting in higher education institutions over short-term periods of up to nine months prior to the start of the academic year. The model, which utilizes data on institutional applications, admissions, and realized enrollments, is applied to forecasting at the University of Minnesota. This study should be of general interest because most institutions have similar forecasting requirements and compile approximately the same data as part of their application and registration procedures. The short-term model complements the recently developed behavioral approach to enrollment forecasting in which forecasts are based on estimated models of enrollment demand behavior.1 This approach allows institutions to generate separate forecasts from alternative assumptions regarding the values of each of the variables that influences enrollment

Economic issues in faculty retirement plans in American higher education institutions

Abstract Almost every faculty member in an American college or university has a contractual arrangement for retirement income. In recent years a number of factors have encouraged both faculty members and institutional administrators to consider the features of their retirement plans including changes in the assets in which funds are accumulated while the faculty member is working, options for payout at retirement, early retirement incentives, and whether it will be legal to have a mandatory retirement age. This paper explores these issues and suggests possible changes in retirement plans and employment contracts as a result of them.

Simulation of Institutional Incentive Plans for Faculty Early Retirement Using a Behavioral Model of Retirement Decision-Making.

This paper uses coefficient estimates from a model of retirement decision-making for faculty members in higher education institutions to simulate the impact of financial incentives for early retirement. The results suggest that plans can be designed to induce relatively large numbers of faculty members to retire prior to the mandatory retirement age. However, the costs of hiring replacements plus pension subsidies can be substantial, especially if the subsidies are directed toward faculty members with relatively low salaries. Hence, institutions wishing to provide open positions to hire new faculty may prefer different incentive plans than those whose goals do not require filling each position with a new faculty member.

A Comparison of Effects of Personnel and Enrollment Policies on the Size and Composition of a University's Faculty

This paper expands the use of a faculty flow model to include simulation of the indirect effects on a universitys faculty of institutional policies which directly affect enrollments. The results, ...