The board that governs the three state-supported universities will ask for nearly 80-million more dollars in funding next year, while at the same time conducting a study aimed at eliminating duplication of programs.
Board of Regents president pro-tem, Bruce Rastetter, told lawmakers this week it has been 25 years since the last review of the offerings at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.
“So while we request additional funds from the state we want you to know that we will do an additional study to evaluate academic programs duplication and potential overlap that the three universities have,” Rastetter said. Rastetter would not speculate on what consultants may find as they examine the operations of the three schools.
“We look forward to people who are experts in the field doing an efficiency report in terms of class size, number of students in curriculum, and then what strategically each of the three universities are focused on,” Rastetter said. A three year study in the late nineties resulted in the elimination of several programs.
More academic offerings went away after a similar evaluation from 2001 to 2003. Rastetter says they’re also on the lookout for ways to streamline purchasing across the regents system. Rastetter addressed a panel of lawmakers who will take the lead in approving university budgets this year.