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University of Montana Takes Lead with Online Accountability System

In an effort to produce more accountability in higher education, The University of Montana helped develop and implement a new national Web site that allows students and their families to easily compare institutions of higher learning.

The College Portrait of Undergraduate Education site can be found online at http://www.collegeportraits.org.

UM President George Dennison said the site will help assure that students and their families have the information needed to make sound college decisions. It provides high school students, parents, guidance counselors and other stakeholders with access to basic information about colleges, such as student characteristics, costs and learning outcomes – all in a user-friendly format.

To date, more than 300 public four-year universities and colleges have volunteered information for the site. In Montana, in addition to UM as a founding participant, Montana State University-Bozeman and MSU-Billings have joined the ranks. UM-Western and Montana Tech of UM will participate soon as well.

The site contains a wealth of information, ranging from undergraduate costs and student enrollment to types of degrees awarded.

“There has been a movement in public and government spheres to create greater accountability in higher education,” said Bill Muse, associate vice president in UM’s Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis. “This effort is higher education getting out front and saying we will be more accountable, and UM has been at the forefront.”

The College Portrait Web site resulted from the Voluntary System of Accountability – a program designed to provide accessible, transparent and comparable information about universities. VSA was created by two nonprofit organizations: the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Funding also came from the Lumina Foundation for Education.

Muse said UM was one of a handful of institutions that took the lead in designing College Portrait. Appointed by President Dennison as the University’s liaison to the planning group, Muse worked on a task force that created a standardized method to report student engagement – the level of participation in programs and activities – at the various colleges.

“We also participated in the pilot project to implement the cost calculator for the site,” Muse said. “This calculator is an easy-to-use tool that allows prospective students and their families to estimate cost of attendance before and after financial aid is applied.”

Each college or university has specific criteria for what to report and how to report it. He said each institution’s site should be updated at least annually, and his office now is preparing to add UM’s record-setting fall enrollment figures.

“We are doing something that is very good for our students and their families,” Muse said. “This is a voluntary system, but I suspect that a year from now a huge portion of all colleges across the U.S. will be involved.”

http://news.umt.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4788&Itemid=9

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