The
American Council on Education (ACE) has regularly surveyed college and
university presidents to capture their perspectives on key issues facing higher
education through our Pulse Point survey series, which examines a range of
issues. In fall 2021, we fielded a questionnaire to specifically better
understand the use of federal Higher Education Emergency Relief
Funds (HEERF) at these presidents’ institutions.
In
our first look
at the results from the questionnaire, respondents reported that HEERF helped institutions
keep students enrolled, kept college affordable, and alleviated the digital
divide by providing students with electronic devices and internet access. Respondents
also indicated that the funds’ support of colleges and universities helped keep
one of the nation’s largest sectors employed.
Using this same data from the survey, we have
conducted a second analysis using total HEERF allocations across three federal
relief bills, which were disbursed in March 2020, January 2021, and March 2021,
and total institutional expenditures for fiscal year 2019 (the most recent year
for which data was available) for 341 survey respondents.[1]
We found that the federal relief funds were especially critical for
lower-resourced institutions and their students.
We first calculated each institution’s total HEERF allocation
as a proportion of total expenditures to reflect the degree of HEERF’s
contribution. The calculated proportion of HEERF funding to institutional
expenditures ranged from 0.06 percent to 42.56 percent among the institutions
in our analysis. Based on the calculated proportions, we then placed respondents
into quartiles, where the first quartile includes those whose HEERF allocation
was smallest in relation to their overall expenditures and the fourth quartile are
those whose HEERF allocation was largest relative to their total expenditures. Two-thirds
(66 percent) of institutions in the first quartile were private four-year
institutions. More than half of institutions in the fourth quartile were public
two-year institutions (56 percent).
Insights
from this analysis reveal that presidents overall reported HEERF helped them
keep students enrolled, retain employed faculty, and buy health-care equipment,
but that those for which HEERF funding was a higher share of their overall
expenditures were more likely to do so. Key findings include:
-
Nearly
all presidents in the fourth quartile (99 percent) indicated some level of
agreement that HEERF enabled their institution to keep students who were at
risk of dropping out enrolled by providing direct financial support to
students. The majority of presidents in the third quartile (93 percent), second
quartile (94 percent), and first quartile (88 percent) also agreed that HEERF
helped keep students enrolled.
- Presidents in the third quartile (89 percent)
were the most likely to report some level of agreement (51 percent strongly
agreed and 38 percent agreed) that HEERF funds enabled their institution to
keep student net prices similar to pre-pandemic levels. While 65 percent of
presidents in the first quartile also expressed agreement, slightly more than
one-quarter (26 percent) reported they disagreed or strongly disagreed, the
highest share of any quartile.
- Institutions whose
HEERF funding was higher relative to their expenditures were more likely to
agree that HEERF helped alleviate the digital divide. Presidents in the fourth
quartile (91 percent) and third quartile (84 percent) were more likely to
express some level of agreement that HEERF kept students enrolled by providing
them with electronic devices and internet access than those in the second (73 percent)
or first (62 percent) quartiles.
- Presidents in the second (72 percent), third (79
percent), and fourth (76 percent) quartiles were much more likely than
presidents in the first quartile to report that HEERF enabled their institution
to keep faculty, staff, employees, and contractors at full salary levels who
were at risk of unemployment due to pandemic-related factors. Among those in
the first quartile, 44 percent expressed some level of agreement that HEERF
helped in this regard.
- Roughly nine in 10
presidents in the second (90 percent), third (93 percent), and fourth (91
percent) quartiles expressed some level of agreement that HEERF enabled their
institution to purchase COVID-19 tests and other health-care equipment needed
to help students and faculty. The majority of presidents in the first quartile
(79 percent) also reported this.
[1]
While HEERF funds were provided across two fiscal years (FY 2020 and FY 2021),
institutional expenditures typically do not shift substantially between fiscal
years.
Of the 341 college and university presidents included in this analysis, 183 were at private four-year institutions (54 percent), 70 were at public four-year institutions (21 percent), 69 were at public two-year institutions (20 percent), and 19 were at other types of institutions (5 percent). Other institutional types include public and private graduate-only, private two-year, and for-profit institutions.
Survey respondents included in this analysis were matched to the institutional and student portions of HEERF using the institution's Office of Postsecondary Education Identifier. Total institutional expenditures for fiscal year 2019 come from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and reflect the most currently available data at the time of analysis.
The brief was prepared under the direction of Hironao Okahana by Ji Hye “Jane" Kim and Morgan Taylor. Kim contributed to data cleaning and analysis and development of the written brief and prepared the data tables. Taylor contributed to the development of the written brief and managed the analysis and writing process.
The authors would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their support in the production and review of this publication: Hollie M. Chessman, Liz Howard, and Danielle Melidona, for review of the publication; and Vanessa Resler, Lindsay Macdonald, and Ally Hammond, for editorial support and making the data come to life through design. Finally, we would also like to acknowledge the following individuals of the Arizona State University Enterprise Policy Analysis Group for their assistance in compiling the HEERF funding allocation data: Max Goshert, Maria Missiego, Mohamed Abouelenin, Sasha Thomas, Stephanie Gerhart, Ashlyn Smith, Freddy Soto, and Armando Montero.