FGCU is projected to receive $9.2 million in state funding this year after placing eighth — out of 12 state universities —  in performance-based funding.
The results, based on 10 metrics, were released during a Florida Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday, June 27, launching the university forward from last year’s bottom three category.
FGCU lost $8 million in funding last year when a change was made to one of the performance metrics.
The BOG decided to replace the average cost per degree measurement with the net tuition per degree metric to incentivize schools to keep costs low for students. FGCU had one of the highest net tuition costs in the system.
In the 2015-2016 metric score sheet, FGCU scored two zeros: One in the net tuition and fees category and another in the academic progress rate (2nd year retention with GPA over 2.0), falling last with Florida Atlantic University and Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University.
The state does not provide funding to universities that fall in the bottom three.
This year, however, FGCU scored a seven and a four in each category and earned a total of 75 points out of 100 – compared to last year’s 66 – tying with the New College of Florida. A tiebreaker projected FGCU forward.
The top performing schools were the University of Florida earning a score of 93, followed by Florida International University with 90 points and Florida State University with 86.
FAMU made its way to the bottom of the list again earning 72 points, followed by the University of North Florida with 68 points and NCF with 75 points.
The performance-based funding model was created in 2012 and approved by the BOG in 2014 to incentivize universities to “improve key metrics”.  The model includes 10 categories and each category is measured from a scale from 1 through 10 with 1 being the lowest.
 
FGCU’s Scores
 
1. Percent of bachelor’s graduates employed and/or continuing their education (1 year after graduation):
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 8
IMPROVEMENT: 3.0%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 6
IMPROVEMENT: 1.5%
 
2. Median wages of bachelor’s graduates employed full-time one year after graduation:
 
2017-2018
SCORE:8
IMPROVEMENT: 4.7%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 8
IMPROVEMENT: 3.1%
 
3. Net tuition and fees per 120 credit hours:
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 0
IMPROVEMENT: -3.5%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 0
IMPROVEMENT: 0.5%
 
4. Four-year graduation rate (Full-time FTIC)
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 0
IMPROVEMENT: 1.3%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 5
IMPROVEMENT: 2.5%
 
 Academic progress rate (2nd year retention with GPA over 2.0):
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 0
IMPROVEMENT: 2.0%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 0
IMPROVEMENT: -0.6%
 
 Bachelor’s degrees awarded in areas of strategic emphasis:
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 10
IMPROVEMENT: 4.6%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 9
IMPROVEMENT: 3.2%
 
 University access rate (percent of undergraduates with a Pell Grant):

2017-2018
SCORE: 7
IMPROVEMENT: -1.4%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 10
IMPROVEMENT: -2.3%
 
 Graduate degrees awarded in areas of strategic emphasis:
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 10
IMPROVEMENT -3.3%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 10
IMPROVEMENT: 5.2%
 
 Percentage of bachelor’s degrees awarded without excess hours:
 
2017-2018
SCORE: 8
IMPROVEMENT: 0.1%
 
2015-2016
SCORE: 8
IMPROVEMENT: -0.4%