MIRA Concerns vs. Reality
MIRA will fix UND’s budget challenges.
MIRA does not print money or tell us what to do with our resources. MIRA will show how we have invested our resources and if those investments are aligned with the goals of our university. In other words, it identifies how much money is UND bringing in and how much and where are those dollars are being spent. Without alignment of resources and goals, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make progress toward those goals. MIRA does not dictate change; it is a tool for informing decisions and interpreting plans and results.
MIRA does not incentivize collaboration.
Incentivizing collaboration is not listed above as one of the main outcomes; there is nothing specific in the model that incentivizes collaboration. It is true that everyone benefits from the undergraduate tuition pool and the state appropriation pool growing. If collaboration causes growth in enrollment, everyone benefits. If collaboration helps keep costs lower and enriches the curriculum by engaging subject matter experts, everyone benefits. There was no incentive for collaboration in the incremental model, and we believe collaboration still happened. Why? Because it was the right thing to do. What is different in MIRA is transparency. The allocation of tuition dollars can be more easily tracked and tied to outcomes.
The College is missing out on significant revenue as a result of instructing graduate students from programs in other colleges given that graduate tuition is allocated 100% to the college of record under MIRA.
When reviewing terms Summer 2018 (1840), Fall 2018 (1910) and Sprint 2019 (1930) student credit hours (SCH), the net equivalent of 354 SCH or 0.50% (354 of 71,184 ) student credit hours of instruction are outside of the college of record for graduate students. The net equivalent takes into account offsetting college instruction and record student credit hours.
How to read the following chart:
The vertical axis is the College that did the graduate instruction and the horizontal axis is the College where the graduate student is earning their degree. School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) instructed 8 student credit hours for students earning an Arts & Sciences (A&S) graduate degree. In total, 40 student credit hours were instructed by A&S, BPA, and JDO for LAW students.
Conclusion:
The difference (0.50%) does not materially impact the allocation to warrant the additional programming needed to change the model statement. The MIRA team will continue to monitor in conjunction with the Deans. There are many ways that collaboration can be promoted and incentivized rather than just monetary. We suggest that colleges work together to create such models.
The College is missing out on significant college of record and college of instruction student credit hours by using 4th week student data instead of end of term student data.
For fall and spring term in FY18 (1810 and 1830), there is a 0.64% or less change in any college's percentage of undergraduate/online college of record student credit hours (CRC-SCH) when comparing 4th week CRC-SCH percentages to the end of term CRC-SCH percentages. When aggregating CRC-SCH percentages for the year, the change is 0.52% or less in comparing 4th week to end of term CRC-SCH.
For fall and spring term in FY18 (1810 and 1830), there is a 0.25% or less change in any college's percentage of undergraduate/online college of instruction student credit hours (CRI-SCH) when comparing 4th week CRI-SCH percentages to the end of term CRI-SCH percentages. When aggregating CRI-SCH percentages for the year, the change is 0.22% or less in comparing 4th week to end of term CRI-SCH.
Conclusion:
There is no material difference between the 4th week and end of term student data. The change as well as the additional wait for SCH data is too detrimental and confusing to warrant the use of the end of term data. For FY17 (terms 1710, 1730, or 1740), the aggregate CRC-SCH change was 0.97% or less, and the aggregate CRI-SCH change was 0.55% or less.
The College is missing out on significant revenue as double majors are not considered in the MIRA model.
Of the 10,519 undergraduate students enrolled as of 4th week in fall 2018 (term 1910), 1,108 students, approximately 10.53% of students, declared double majors. Of those double majors, the net equivalent of 155 students or approximately 1.47% had a second major outside of the college of the primary major. The net equivalent was calculated to account for a student with a primary major in A&S and a second major in BPA that would be offset by a student with a primary BPA major and a second major in A&S.
How to read the chart below:
The College of primary major is the vertical axis and the College of secondary major is the horizontal axis. In total, Arts & Sciences (A&S) had 109 net equivalent students that they would have shared in the 40% record allocation because College of Business and Public Administration (BPA), School of Aerospace Sciences (JDO), College Nursing & Professional Disciplines (NUR), College of Engineering and Mines (SEM) and School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) were the primary major and A&S was the secondary major.
Conclusion:
The college of record allocation is 40% of the undergraduate tuition pool and the 1.47% is not material to impact the allocation. The MIRA team in conjunction with the Deans will continue to monitor this percentage for materiality. For fall 2017 (term 1810), the comparable metric was 1.65%.