Called the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), the national initiative furnishes instant access to data on enrollment, engagement and graduation. It also arrays other key information about students in easy-to-use fashion: age, ethnicity, retention and graduation rates, financial aid, learning outcomes and student perceptions and experiences.
Humboldt State’s new VSA database is at http://www.humboldt.edu/~anstud/college_portrait_vsa2008.pdf. It shows, for example, that the student population is 53 percent female and 47 percent male. The lion’s share of HSU undergraduates, 84 percent, comes from California and the average student age is 23.4 years.
HSU President Rollin Richmond called the new clearinghouse “an important opportunity for HSU to demonstrate what an excellent educational experience is available to the people of California and beyond. It also enables Humboldt State and the CSU to show both the nation and the state the high value of the education we provide.”
Richmond underscored higher education’s vital role in economic health. “Rigorous undergraduate training, including the hands-on field experience HSU excels at, is crucial to the state’s and the Redwood Coast’s competiveness in the global economy,” he said, “especially in view of China’s emergence as an economic powerhouse and as a citadel of Pacific Rim influence.”
Humboldt State’s template is an offshoot of the CSU’s “College Portrait and Public Good” web pages, which provide unprecedented information about undergraduates. The CSU has supplemented the portrait profiles with ‘public good’ data: total degrees awarded, CSU student contributions to the workforce, the number of Pell Grant recipients, average net tuition and fees paid per student and the average debt of CSU bachelor’s degree winners.
The VSA program is a voluntary effort for four-year colleges and universities, the brainchild of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. The common web report is aimed at measuring educational outcomes so that effective educational practices can be identified. It is also designed to demonstrate stewardship and accountability to the public.