A comparison of statewide public higher education agencies

This study examined the relation of statewide coordination agencies' control functions to the outputs of state systems of higher education in Virginia and North Carolina. The Council of Higher Education for Virginia, a coordinating agency with regulatory authority, and the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system, a governing board authority, represented the two most frequently chosen agency forms of statewide coordination for higher education. Data were collected for the years 1967 through 1982, inclusive of the period between 1972 and 1974 when these agencies were established in the two states. Data were based on inputs and outputs theorized from institutional operations under the supervision of the statewide agencies. Major findings included the unreliability of quantitative historical data from institutions of higher learning in the two states due to variations in measurement and collection techniques. Statistical summaries of these data which could be provided suggested that differences in the outputs of the institutions, were reflective of intended outcomes of the statewide agency decision making process