FSU makes Top 3 in performance-based funding metrics; FAMU on ‘watch list’

Florida State and Florida A&M universities both show a drop in their performance-based funding (PBF) metric scores this year, with FAMU being on the Board of Governors' "watch list."

But in spite of FSU's drop, it maintains its Top Three status in the Florida State University System — tied with the University of South Florida for the third highest scores — along with the University of Florida coming in second place and Florida International University in the lead.

The board met on the University of Central Florida's campus last week to discuss this year's metrics, where the 12 universities in the state's system are judged on how well they perform in 10 categories designated by the board for a possible 100 points.

While FSU scored an 89 this year and dropped five points from 2023, FAMU scored a 72, which is a drop from 78 points last year.

FAMU President Larry Robinson said the university is doing "a lot" to make sure its metric score improves next year.

"We're doubling down in our efforts to focus on student success," Robinson told board members during Thursday's Budget and Finance Committee meeting ahead of Friday's full board meeting. "Our freshman and sophomore retention rate is one we're paying a lot of attention to."

The last time FAMU was on the board's watch list was in 2022.

As a university on the board's watch list — along with UCF, the University of North Florida and Florida Polytechnic University — FAMU must make sure its score does not decrease again next year. Otherwise, a student success plan will need to be presented and completed before it receives up to 100% of its state investment allocations.

Earlier during the Thursday committee meetings, another issue was presented when Florida Board of Governors Vice Chair Alan Levine expressed his concerns about FAMU's licensure programs for law, nursing, pharmacy and physical therapy as they continue to fall short of hitting university goals  — so much so that he is ready to eliminate them if improvements are not made moving forward.

But despite the poor licensure pass rates — which includes the College of Law's first attempt rate in 2023 that falls 39% short of the university's 80% approved goal — FAMU had its share of highlights that were noted in this year's performance-based funding metrics.

Florida A&M University

FAMU improved in four areas of the metrics, including its four-year graduation rate with a 6.6% increase from last year to bring it up to 35%, making it the largest one-year increase in the SUS as it inches toward this year's goal of 46%.

At the same time, the university's four-year graduation rate remains the lowest in the state's system.

When it comes to FAMU's six-year graduation rate for students who are awarded a Pell Grant in their first-year at the university, a 7.9% decrease is seen this year from last year's 57.5% of students.

Robinson says the university is looking to provide six-year students with some additional resources, which will potentially lead to improvements in the category.

"Their financial situations are different from others, so just a little support will help them and we want to identify that before they're in trouble," Robinson said.

FAMU's other significant metric scores include improvements in the median wages of bachelor's graduates who are employed full-time one year after graduation, which is $43,700 after a 10.6% increase from last year's $39,500.

In addition, FAMU continues to exceed one of the board's main expectations for the state's institutions to be above an access rate of 30%, which represents the percentage of undergraduates with a Pell Grant. This year, FAMU's access rate in the category is 56.1% — the highest out of the 12 universities.

Florida State University

In this year's metrics, FSU has the second highest four-year graduation rate at 74.9%, which is just 2% below the University of Florida's leading rate in the category.

"I am proud of the achievements of our students, faculty and staff who all contribute to Florida State University being one of the top-performing institutions in the state," FSU President Richard McCullough said in a prepared statement sent to the Democrat Monday.

"Our high scores in the performance-based funding metrics reflect our commitment to academic excellence, student success and research impact." 

Other FSU news: Dr. Alma Littles is named new dean of FSU College of Medicine after being interim

FSU also has a relatively high six-year graduation rate at 79.9% compared to other universities in the SUS, but the percentage is a 2.8% drop from last year.

When it comes to access rates, FSU and UF have both been below the board's minimum 30% access rate requirement for the past seven years in a row

While FSU's access rate this year is 24.5% — down by 1.6% — the percentage of UF undergraduate students with a Pell Grant is the lowest one out of all the institutions at 23.2%. Florida Gulf Coast University is also below the board's goal in the category with a 29.8% access rate.

Despite the drops, FSU maintains top scores in most of the metrics categories, such as its academic progress rate of 95.1%, which refers to the second-year retention of students with a 2.0 GPA or higher. FAMU's rate in the category is 81.8%.

Board of Governors approves $645 million for second consecutive year

A performance-based funding allocation in the amount of $645 million was approved by the board Friday, which is the same amount as last year. The year before that, $560 million was allocated.

While $350 million of the funds come from state investments, $295 million come from institutional investments to be distributed to the institutions for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

The board also approved the allocation of $100 million in performance-based recruitment and retention funds for the new fiscal year, where FSU will receive $14.5 million and FAMU will get $2.3 million.

"With record funding from Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, we are committed to building upon our successes by continuing to set high expectations, prioritize student achievement and recruit and retain world-class faculty to positively impact our state," Florida Board of Governors Chair Brian Lamb said in a prepared statement.

Here are the metric scores, university investments and state allocations for the 12 universities :

Source: State of Florida

Contact Tarah Jean at  tjean@tallahassee.com  or follow her on X:  @tarahjean_ .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU, FAMU get millions in performance-based funding with metric scores