More Students, More Degrees, More Dollars

Marguerite Roza, Alicia Kinne, Patrick Murphy, and Betheny Gross

May 2013

Cuts to state support for higher education have prompted some universities to raise tuition, admit more out-of-state students, and increase enrollment to close budget gaps. This analysis compares these three strategies in public flagship universities, first in terms of the relative magnitude needed to close a gap in state funds, and then in terms of the extent to which they contribute to degree production for students in their state. A previous version of this paper was released under the title “How Public Universities Close Budget Gaps Matters For States” by the Center on Reinventing Public Education in December 2012.