Delaware Cost Study

In response to state level interest in performance budgeting, the appropriations bill specified new accountability measures for higher education. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) and the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) decided on a national study out of the University of Delaware, the Delaware Cost Study, which could provide benchmarks for instructional cost comparisons with institutions outside of Tennessee.

The Delaware Cost Study began in 1992. The quantitative portion of the Delaware Study seeks to answer: “Who is teaching what to whom, and at what cost?” While the information provided in the quantitative portion of the Delaware Study is quite useful, the qualitative dimension of the study seeks to measure selected facets of out-of-classroom faculty activity. The objective of the qualitative study is to create an inter-institutionally comparable set of measures that describe what faculty do outside of the classroom.

The Faculty Activity System is a web-based data collection system for collecting data for the qualitative dimension of the study. The Faculty Activity Checklist should be completed by faculty within each academic department. The Summary Form provides a report of aggregate data for each discipline/department from the faculty activity checklists and should be submitted by the department chair.

Tables for the Delaware Study can be accessed on our secured website through the MTSU Access Only link.