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Public Four Year Finance Dashboard
About this Dashboard
The 2023 Washington State Legislature passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5512, Chapter 98, Laws of 2023. This bill amended requirements for ERDC’s reporting on data from the public four-year institutions to include student to staff ratios and financial information. This dashboard addresses these additional requirements by providing information on financial measures and student-staff ratios.
Washington state’s six public four-year institutions consist of a mix of research institutions; regional, comprehensive universities; and a liberal arts and sciences college. These institutions can vary greatly in their missions, size, student type, and other important characteristics that can impact the measures reported on this dashboard. If attempting to compare values of the measures on the dashboard across institutions, users should consider how and whether values differ because of these important differences in institutional characteristics.
Data sources
This inaugural dashboard uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and institution financial reports. Future dashboard updates might use alternative data sources. For information on the calculations used for a given metric, please see that metric on the dashboard. For information on the underlying variables from the relevant data sources, please see the Variables and Calculations Description document.
Measures included in this dashboard
The table below describes the measures from ESSB5512. Equations used to calculate these measures are provided with the measure on the dashboard. For specific variables used from the original data sources to calculate these measures, please see the Variables and Calculations Description document.
| Measure | About this measure |
|---|---|
| Ratio of fall headcount students to fall headcount faculty appointment |
Student-to-faculty ratios show the number of students per faculty member. For example, a ratio of 10 means there are 10 students for every one faculty member. Higher student-to-faculty ratios might indicate larger classes, on average, compared to lower ratios. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the FTE student-to-faculty ratio at public 4-year institutions across the US was 13.7-to-1. This measure includes both undergraduate and graduate students and faculty who teach undergraduates, graduates, and a mix of both. Therefore, values on this ratio might differ across institutions because of the differences in student-to-faculty ratios in undergraduate and graduate programs and the extent to which institutions have large graduate programs. |
| Annualized ratio of full-time equivalent students to annualized full-time equivalent (FTE) nonfaculty positions |
Student-to-nonfaculty ratios (i.e. student-to-staff ratios) show the number of students per staff member. For example, a ratio of 10 means there are 10 students for every one staff member on campus. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the FTE student-to-staff ratio at public 4-year institutions across the US was 4.5-to-1. This measure includes both undergraduate and graduate students and a mix of research institutions; regional, comprehensive universities; and a liberal arts and sciences college. If comparing across institutions, note that ratios can differ because the numbers and types of staff needed can vary substantially across institution types, institutional mission, and across undergraduate and graduate programs. |
| Net position for the academy | Net position measures the assets left after liabilities are subtracted. See IPEDS Glossary. |
| Annual primary reserve ratio as measured by expendable net assets to total expenses | The primary reserve ratio shows how well an institution can cover its expenses with expendable net assets, which are assets the institution can access quickly. This measure demonstrates how long an institution can function using expendable reserves rather than generating additional assets. For example, a primary reserve ratio of 0.40 indicates that an institution can cover 40% of a year or five months of expenses using expendable net assets. Ratios below 0.15 might indicate less flexibility, less opportunity for reinvestment, and more need for short-term borrowing. A decline in the primary reserve ratio over time means expenses are growing more rapidly than expendable assets (NACUBO) |
| Cash on hand as calculated by the ratio of total cash on hand for the academy divided by operating expenses for the academy minus noncash expenses divided by 365 | This ratio reports the number of days an institution can continue to pay its cash operating expenses with cash and short-term investments that can be liquidated and spent in a short period of time. For example, a ratio of 50 means an institution has enough cash and short-term investments to cover operating expenses for 50 days. Generally, higher ratios indicate more liquidity and might also indicate the opportunity to invest in longer term investments. |
| Viability ratio as measured by unrestricted and expendable net assets, not including capital projects expendable net assets, divided by total debt | The viability ratio measures the availability of expendable net assets to cover an institution’s debt should the institution need to settle its debt as of the balance sheet date. Ratios greater than 1 indicate an institution can cover its debt with its expendable net assets, which are assets the institution can access quickly. Lower ratios might indicate less self-reliance and flexibility than higher ratios; however there is no absolute threshold to represent financial health as institutions, especially public institutions, can benefit from the state’s financial position (NACUBO). |
| Ratio of total expendable net assets for the academy per full-time equivalent student | This ratio shows the total expendable net assets, which are assets the institution can access quickly, per FTE student. For example, a ratio of $10,000 indicates an institution has $10,000 of expendable net assets per FTE student. Higher values indicate an institution has larger amounts of expendable financial resources per FTE student. |
| Total market value of college or university endowment holdings | This depicts the total market value of the institution’s endowment. On its own, this measure might not indicate financial health of an institution as larger institutions will often have larger endowments than smaller institutions simply due to size. |
| The amount of the annual earnings that remain in the endowment after fees are removed | This measures the realized and unrealized gains from the investment of endowment funds after fund management fees required to obtain those gains are removed. |
| The percentage of the annual remaining endowment earnings after fees are removed to total annual market value of college or university endowment holdings | This percentage is a measure of the return on investment of endowment holdings that can occur through gains (losses) from dividends, interest, etc. For example, a percentage of 10% means that an institution gained a 10% return on the investment of their endowment funds. Higher percentages indicate a higher return. |
Additional notes:
Legislation calls for reporting total endowment earnings including fees and with fees removed. However, total endowment earnings including fees is not available in IPEDS. ERDC will work with institutions to obtain this information for future dashboard updates.
Prior legislation required institutions and ERDC to report on median student debt load. Median student debt can be calculated in many ways depending on which students are included, what loans are included, and other factors. ERDC is working with institutions to consider these nuances and develop a consistent measure of student debt across the six public four-year institutions. Data on student debt load will be added in a future dashboard release.
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