Report 2012-113 Recommendation 11 Responses

Report 2012-113: California State University's Extended Education: It Is Unclear Whether Supplanting Occurred, and Campuses Did Not Always Document Their Adherence to Laws, Policies, and Procedures (Release Date: December 2013)

Recommendation #11 To: Long Beach, California State University

To ensure that it sets self-supported fees for extended education in accordance with state law and Executive Order 1054, CSU Long Beach should immediately take the following action: prepare and retain market studies to justify the appropriateness of its fee increases.

6-Month Agency Response

The College of Continuing and Professional Education, when appropriate, will prepare market studies using a third party that researches other institutions to examine similar programs offered by local and national institutions for characteristics such as: Program Size, Program Duration, Cost per credit, Number of Credits, Delivery Format, Target Applicant, Curriculum

Market studies will be prepared to confirm fees are competitive in the continuing education marketplace. To assist in determining the best fee to fit the marketplace, we utilize market studies performed by the Educational Advisory Board. The Education Advisory Board (EAB) is known for providing best practice research and practical advice to leaders of academic affairs, business affairs, student affairs, advancement, continuing, online, and professional education, and community colleges across North America. As an example of a market study from EAB, find attached a study run for the College of Continuing and Professional Education on a Master of Arts program (Attachment D). The study is broken down into: a) Key Observations; b) Executive Summary; c) An example of a data sheet from one of the Universities in the study (Arizona State University)

A unique record identifier has been created in the campus fiscal records retention schedule to retain documentation on market studies for fee justification. The record identifier number is 2.15.3. (Attachment A)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The College of Continuing and Professional Education (CCPE) marketing group will prepare selected marketing scans to justify the appropriateness of its fee increases for programs requiring special modifications.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2012-113

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.