13 Critical Facts About the Condition of the State Colleges and Universities
| Fact 1 | New Jersey state colleges and universities rank nationally #3 in productivity for baccalaureate/masters institutions. |
| Fact 2 | Over 90% of state college/university students are New Jerseyans. During the past decade, minority enrollment, full-time enrollment, and residential enrollment, and retention and graduation rates have increased despite declining state support. |
| Fact 3 | Major gifts and grants to the state colleges and universities hve increased significantly, with some of the largest in the institutions' history received recently. |
| Fact 4 | In FY 2009 states on average devoted 10.4% of its budget to higher education, whereas New Jersey devoted only 8.4%, according to a National Association of State Budget Officers analysis (Fall 2010). |
| Fact 5 | With declining state investment, students' share of educational costs has risen to about two-thirds, from about 30%, since FY 1990. |
| Fact 6 | The share of family disposable income needed to pay for college has risen to
17%, from 9%, since FY 1991. |
| Fact 7 | Underfunding of state-negotiated labor contracts since FY 2000 amounts to over $204 million absorbed by the colleges/universities, or passed on to students in the form of higher tuition and fees. |
| Fact 8 | Unlike a large majority of states, New Jersey has no capital budget for higher education facilities. No significant general obligation bond investment has been passed since 1988. |
| Fact 9 | Tuition is the second highest in the nation because of the absence of capital funding and the state's failure to pay for mandated costs, especially the full cost of labor contracts. |
| Fact 10 | New Jersey state colleges and universities have among the highest debt service in the nation -- yet high bond ratings; and bond agencies find the debt to be well managed. Bond raters' biggest concern is state regulation that could turn back the clock on responsible enrollment and financial policy set by boards of trustees. |
| Fact 11 | The public has confidence in state college trustee boards. In recent polls of voters, when given the choice among three options to provide accountability, they trust college presidents and nonpartisan trustee boards over New Jersey state government by a 4:1 margin. |
| Fact 12 | New Jersey ranks 47th in the nation in four-year public college/university enrollment capacity (undergraduate seats) to serve its citizens, partially accounting for New Jersey ranking 1st nationally in net loss of college bound students (close to 30,000 annually). |
| Fact 13 | State colleges and universities overall have increased their six-year graduation rates by about one percentage point per year since the 1992 entering cohort; four-year graduation rates have increased even more rapidly in recent years -- more than 1.6 percentage points per year since the 1997 entering cohort. NJ state college/university averages consistently exceed the national mean by several points. |