The state has traditionally accepted the responsibility for higher education within its boundaries. With the advent of "1202 commissions," the state has garnered even more responsibility for planning policy measures which directly involve the independent sector of higher education. The history and traditions of each state shape its policies toward higher education as much as current conditions and future considerations. The unique characteristics of each state require the states individually to study, design and implement policies of state support for their independent sectors. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to demonstrate the perceptions held by Florida's independent college and university presidents and legislators toward various types and forms of state support which may be made available to Florida's independent sector in relation to acceptable and anticipated demands of accountability commensurate with this support. / A survey instrument was developed which contained ninety-six statements. Each statement was a combination of a selected state support program and a selected accountability measure. The statements were grouped into twelve areas with each area containing a specific state support program combined with each of eight accountability measures. The respondents were presented with four possible degrees of opinion on a Likert scale, consisting from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The survey was mailed to a study population consisting of all 160 members of the 1979 Florida Legislature, and 38 presidents of independent higher education institutions located in Florida. Responses were received from 48.1 percent of the legislators and 52.6 percent of the presidents. In comparing the legislative and presidential replies, twelve null hypotheses were tested. Each null hypothesis stated that there existed no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of legislators and presidents regarding a particular state support program and the associated accountability measures. The statistical comparisons were performed by a Multiple Discriminant Analysis computer program. / The findings of the analysis revealed that there were significant differences between the perceptions of legislators and presidents regarding all twelve of the state support programs and the associated accountability measures. The data also revealed that both a majority of legislators and of independent sector presidents favored the concepts of state support for the independent sector, with the presidents indicating a more favorable perception. Certain statements exhibited less discriminating ability than others in differentiating between presidents and legislators. The statements which contain the accountability measure of student aid, accreditation, interinstitutional cooperation, or student certification are the statements which, when combined, account for 31% or less of the perceptual difference between legislators and presidents. A high correlation exists between the legislators' and presidents' ranking order of accountability measures within the state student loans, general scholarships, tuition equalization grants, purchase of services from consortia, service contracts, enrollment-driven standard grants, increased enrollment grant and trailer grant programs. The presidents tend to rank the accountability measures similarly regardless of the state support program. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-12, Section: A, page: 4999. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74366 |
| Contributors | RAHO, LOUIS EDWARD., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 180 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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