While details are sketchy about what the rating system will look like, a fact sheet released to the media by the Obama administration prior to the president's appearance in Buffalo cites as possible measures graduation rates, the earnings of students who have graduated, and advanced degrees earned by students who have graduated.
Though that decision was made in 2008, Mr. Reeser said it was in preparation for an eventual conversion to a system in which high enrollment numbers were not as important as the potential earnings of students.
The university refuses to take into account projected earnings from students who plan to carry out paid work during their course and has only one means-tested scholarship available.
Gender bending Tiredness kills ReprintsMost ominous of all is some startling recent research in Labour Market Trends, a government publication, looking at the variation in earnings of students who left school with good examination results (meaning two or more A-levels).
Under the new "value-added accountability funding formula," as Mr. Reeser called it, the earnings of students who attended the college for at least nine credit hours will be tracked using Texas Workforce Commission data — as long as they remain in the state.
Instead, the evaluation showed strong positive impacts of Career Academies on the employment and earnings of students, especially for at-risk young men.
The loss of lifetime earnings for students who dropped out of school in 2010 alone totals more than $2.6 billion.
The site listed 25 schools with the lowest median earnings for students six years after enrolling, many of which were below $30,000, the median salary for high school graduates between 25 and 34.
In 2009, 47 percent of women and 39 percent of men working full time and repaying college loans one year after graduation were paying more than 8 percent of their earnings toward student loan debt — a threshold widely considered an indicator of economic stress.
