CPE amends minimum college admission guidelines

Kentucky’s Council on Postsecondary Education voted to amend administrative regulation 13 KAR 2:020, which sets minimum requirements for admission and course placement standards at state-supported colleges and universities.

With the amended policy, traditional high school students would need a high school GPA of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale to meet minimum admission requirements to enter a public four-year university.

Students with a GPA between 2.0 to 2.49 could still be admitted to a public four-year university if they sign a learning contract with the campus specifying the advising, mentoring, tutoring and support services expectations for both the student and the campus.

The amendment also mandates the implementation of the corequisite model for students needing remediation in core content areas. A corequisite course is a credit-bearing course that includes enhanced academic supports, such as additional hours of instruction, tutoring, mentoring or advising.

Moving toward the corequisite model of remediation will assist students in progressing to a degree more quickly outside the traditional developmental education model, which is often more costly and ineffective in progressing students toward degree completion.

“Today’s action represents a major policy milestone that will increase student success for literally thousands of students over time. We are extremely grateful to all our campus presidents and chief academic officers for their shared commitment to help more students persist and graduate,” said Bob King, CPE president.

Other minimum requirements for college admission remain unchanged and include:

• Meeting the Kentucky Minimum High School Graduation Requirements.
• Meeting the precollege curriculum requirements.
• Taking the established college admission or academic readiness assessments established by the Kentucky Department of Education.

The amendment now moves through the legislative regulatory review process and requires adoption by the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee and the Interim Joint Committee on Education. If adopted, the amendment would take effect for the 2019-20 academic year.

In other business, CPE approved the campus proposals for 2018-19 tuition and mandatory fees at the state’s colleges and universities. All proposals complied with the Council’s two-year tuition and mandatory fee ceilings for in-state undergraduates established at the April 27 meeting.

Approved tuition and mandatory fee increases for in-state undergraduates include:

• Morehead State University—0.0 percent
• Eastern Kentucky University--0.0 percent
• Kentucky State University—3.9 percent
• Murray State University—3.0 percent
• Northern Kentucky University--3.1 percent
• University of Kentucky—2.5 percent
• University of Louisville—3.5 percent
• Western Kentucky University--4.0 percent
• Kentucky Community and Technical College System—4.3 percent

The new tuition dollars will help offset a net reduction of $25.6 million in state funding in 2018-19 and a $31.8 million increase in campus fixed costs for the coming year.

In other action, the Council approved three asset preservation fee exemption requests to help ensure asset preservation and renovation of postsecondary facilities for instructional and administrative purposes.

For Morehead State University, the Council approved a fee exemption request at $5 per credit hour, capped at 12 credit hours or $120 annually.

After factoring in tuition freezes at Morehead State University and Eastern Kentucky University next year and the three asset preservation fee exemptions, the adopted tuition and mandatory fee increases will average 3.6 percent, the third lowest system average rate of increase in 17 years.

The asset preservation fees, which are excluded from the tuition and mandatory fee ceilings at each campus, are restricted funds for approved education and general asset preservations projects only.

In other business, the council:

• Adopted a tentative CPE meeting calendar through June 2019 with business meetings set Feb. 22, April 26 and June 28.
• Presented a resolution honoring and commending Bob King, president of the CPE, for nearly a decade of service. Resolutions also were issued to interim presidents of Northern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville.

The council heard the following reports:

• Annual briefing from the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities.
• An update from the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board.
• Kentucky Skills U.
• CPE President’s report.
• Commissioner of education report.
• Committee on Equal Opportunities.
• CPE presidential search committee.

The Council’s next meeting is set Sept. 20-21.