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Office of the Provost

Fee-based Degree Task Force

Take force members

  • Mia Tuan, Dean, College of Education, Chair
  • Suzanne Allen, Vice Dean, Academic, Rural & Regional Affairs, School of Medicine
  • Jed Bradley, Executive Director of Policy, Planning & State Operations, FPB
  • Rovy Branon, Vice Provost, Continuum College
  • Kima Cargill, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School
  • Tina Miller, Senior Associate Registrar, Office of the University Registrar
  • Santhi Perumal, Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration, College of Education
  • Erin Town, Assistant Dean of Full-time, Evening and Global MBA Programs, Foster School

Charge letter

Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for agreeing to serve on the Fee-based Degree Task Force. Your charge is to review the current-state constellation of all fee-based degrees offered by UW and to recommend adjustments needed to provide a more intentional, and rational approach to the entire portfolio and a path for integration and alignment with Incentive Based Budgeting (IBB).

The review should provide a comprehensive picture of fee-based degree programs today. This picture should include clarity on the current state of fee-based programs to include alignment with relevant policies and statutory restrictions, the impact on students including their persistence, financial frameworks, outcomes and affordability of these programs. The goal is to offer a peer-based review as input into recommendations for better institutional alignment and creating conditions for program growth

It is my expectation that recommendations for changes to fee-based degree programs integrate with the upcoming move from Activity Based Budgeting to Incentive Based Budgeting (IBB), such that changes to the financial models and administrative support of fee-based programs are fully merged into the IBB implementation plan.

Overview of fee-based degree programs and background on prior committee work

Continuum College manages the majority of fee-based, or self-sustaining, degrees at the University of Washington on behalf of the Office of the Provost. There are several fee-based degree programs offered by schools and colleges outside of the management of Continuum College, including those in the Foster School of Business, the School of Law, and the School of Medicine.

In 2021, a group was charged with developing a plan to bridge the financial administration of Continuum College-managed fee-based degree programs between now and a comprehensive review of fee-based rates to be undertaken in FY25. The work resulted in a new financial model for the units that partner with Continuum College on the administration of fee-based programs. To give choice and flexibility to UW schools and colleges offering fee-based degree programs, Continuum implemented a multi-year plan that increased local ownership of the back-end administration of their degree programs and maintained their enterprise-level fee-based student database (called EOS) and the required wrap-around services affiliated with EOS, such as student registration, online payment portal, accounts receivable, and course creation and management within EOS. The 2021 effort did not directly address the broader fee-based degree offerings across the UW outside of Continuum College’s portfolio (i.e., the “independent fee-based programs”) or attempt to unify

overhead rates. In addition, the 2021 committee scope did not include a complete cost allocation assessment to include other central units and their work for fee-based programs, including Libraries, Disability Resources for Students (DRS), the Graduate School, Facilities, etc.

The committee advanced a need to further review fee-based programs in FY25 after the ABB review concluded and the UW’s Workday Finance implementation was more stable.

Steering committee charge and scope

Before Spring Quarter 2025 concludes, please review our current state of fee-based programs across all UW schools, colleges.

Review

  • Consider student enrollment, persistence, demographics, graduation rates, and debt loads.
  • Identify services that are unique to fee-based degrees, provided either by Continuum College (e.g., cohort-based pricing) or through school/college/program level staff in the independent fee-based programs.
  • Include in your analysis the financial framework for different programs, peer practices for fee-based program administration, other central unit costs (Libraries, DRS, etc.) not captured today.
  • Identify areas where we can streamline administrative redundancies, improve student experience, and reduce costs.
  • Clarify the criteria for determining the appropriate mechanism (tuition vs. fee-based) for degree programs based on existing policy and statutory restrictions. Include any differences between graduate fee-based degrees and undergraduate fee-based degree programs.

Recommendations

  • Develop options for the administration of all UW fee-based programs. o Identify “common goods” that should be supported through a unified, central approach, including specialized services that might be unique to fee-based degree programs
    • Include recommendations for reductions in duplicative infrastructure (e.g. Registration, Financial services, etc.)
    • Recommend changes to Administrative Policy Statements, Executive Orders, and Scholastic Regulations needed for implementing the new options.
  • Ensure that the cost pool development in IBB incorporates infrastructure needs of fee-based programs such that alignment between overhead and taxation rates are rationalized and streamlined. The objective is to deprecate use of separate overhead rates over time.
  • Suggest a path forward and timeline for aligning implementation of these options within the larger IBB budget model roadmap that is under review this Fall Quarter. This will likely involve an accounting of administrative services for fee-based programs across Continuum, independent programs, and other central services like Information Technology, libraries and DRS to determine a proposed approach for articulating expenses in cost pools that will be metered out in the new model.

Key topics in scope for review

At your discretion, please establish short-term task forces to integrate subject matter expertise and to spread workload. Subcommittees may be established at your discretion; thank you for being mindful of the spirit and intention of this work, as outlined above, and for respecting folks’ time during a busy academic year. If constituted, subcommittees should report to the task force regularly, and through other communication channels, as stipulated by the chair.

Resources and timeline

Marisa Nickle will be the project manager for the task force and will begin to initiate meetings.

The Task Force’s work will be essential to building possible modifications to fee-based degree program administration into a larger workplan; checking in with stakeholders along the way will be essential.

  • December 2024: Task Force convenes
  • February 2025: Initial check in with the Provost
  • March 2025: Updates and opportunities for engagement with BODC, SCPB
  • June 2025: Draft report due for review
  • Summer 2025: Final report due

Thank you for your commitment and careful attention to this vital work; I look forward to reviewing your recommendations.

Sincerely,

Tricia R. Serio
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor, Biochemistry

Updated: December 6, 2024