Power of Public: Leveraging Data to Tell the UC Story
Pamela Brown to present the UC 2015 Accountability Report
BERKELEY, CA, October 23, 2015 – Pamela Brown, Vice President of Institutional Research and Academic Planning (IRAP) at UC Office of the President (UCOP) will present the findings of the 2015 UC Accountability Report at Berkeley on Oct. 28th. Higher education institutions are increasingly called upon to account for the value of a college degree and the importance of research universities. The report asserts that as the largest public research institution in the world, the University of California (UC) must lead the way in advocating the purpose and importance of public higher education. Now in its 8th year, the report provides an assessment of UC’s progress in meeting key teaching, research, and public-service goals across ten campuses. Similar data is presented in an interactive form in the Information Center. UC utilizes both data sets for strategic planning, budgeting, and performance management, and to identify important policy issues facing UC. In her presentation, Brown will demonstrate how UCOP uses institutional data to respond to performance outcomes and accountability efforts.
The 2015 UC Accountability Report examines and measures progress in five key roles UC must take to fulfill its mission: educating California undergraduate and graduate students, supporting K-12 education in California, conducting research, operating five teaching hospitals, and taking the lead on environmental sustainability.
Quantified in the report is the growth of UC’s student enrollment, which has quadrupled over the past 50 years and now stands at more than 246,000 students across its ten campuses. Over the past two decades freshman applications have grown almost 5 per cent per year, a trend UC expects will continue. Currently, approximately 30 percent of UC’s incoming undergraduates are from California community colleges, and UC’s goal is to increase that number to 33 percent by 2017-2018. Data from the report shows that an area of significant improvement over the past 12 years is the four-year graduation rate of undergraduate students. The enrollment of graduate students has remained steady over the last 15 years, according to the report, and comprises about 20 percent of the UC student body.
Findings from the report also show progress towards the goal of increasing diversity among UC faculty and students. According to the report, “In 2015, UC Santa Barbara became the first member of the Association of American Universities to be designated as an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with at least 25 percent Hispanic undergraduate enrollment.” The report also states, “Among the faculty, the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) continues to grow.”
The report also demonstrates how graduates of the UC System meet the state’s critical need for an educated labor force, particularly in the STEM fields. More than 70 percent of UC bachelor degree recipients go on to work in California, as do half of the students in graduate programs. Another surprising statistic is that of UC’s 1.6 million living alumni, 1.2 million are California residents.
UC is the primary conduit in the state for developing health care professionals and operates the largest health sciences instructional program in the nation, enrolling more than 14,000 students annually. The report underscores the positive impact that graduates from these programs have on health care services in California.
The report assesses the affordability of UC, revealing that the University leads the nation’s research universities in the proportion of undergraduates who are low-income and the percentage who are Pell Grant recipients. UC students graduate with a lower than average debt when compared with other public four-year institutions.
The report states, “UC data shows that higher education remains one of the best investments an individual and the state can make. Overall, incomes of UC bachelor’s degrees recipients double between two and ten years after graduation.”
Carol Christ, Director of Center for Studies in Higher Education, will moderate the presentation by Pamela Brown at Barrows Hall, 8th Floor, Social Science Matrix, from 4-5pm on Wednesday, 10/28
Sponsored by: The Center for Studies in Higher Education and the Social Science Matrix
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Pamela Brown was appointed Vice President of Institutional Research and Academic Planning (IRAP) in the Office of the Provost at the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) in November 2013. Prior to working at UCOP, Pamela worked for 16 years at UC Berkeley, where her last role was as Executive Director of the Office of Planning and Analysis (OPA). Ms. Brown received her Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public Policy and her B.A. in Applied Mathematics both from UC Berkeley.
Carol ChrististheDirector, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley; former President, Smith College; and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, UC Berkeley.
Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) was established in 1956 and was the first research institute in the United States devoted to the study of systems, institutions, and processes of higher education. The Center’s mission is to produce and support multi-disciplinary scholarly perspectives on strategic issues in higher education, to conduct relevant policy research, to promote the development of a community of scholars and policymakers engaged in policy-oriented discussion, and to serve the public as a resource on higher education. http://cshe.berkeley.edu