Improving the Yields in Higher Education Findings from Lumina Foundation’s State-Based Efforts to Increase Productivity in U.S. Higher Education

Lumina became the first national private foundation to provide significant support to states interested in exploring how to increase productivity in higher education—defined as graduating substantially more students within available financial resources while maintaining access and educational quality. Lumina supported this work in the midst of turbulent financial times, aware that higher education in the United States is an enormously complex enterprise, with different historical contexts, political structures, governance systems, and institutional configurations in each state. This report identifies early outcomes and implications of the work that seven states have done in higher education policy, by examining changes in policies and programs at the state and system levels between 2008 and 2013.