Summary of Report 03-047

August 2003

Report Number 03-047

Universities' and health-related institutions' errors in base-period enrollment data are within the 2 percent error rate allowed by Rider 18, page III-262, General Appropriations Act (78th Legislature, Regular Session). Therefore, no funding adjustments are necessary for the 2004–2005 biennium. Rider 18 specifies that “the calculation of revised appropriation amounts shall allow each institution an error rate of up to two percent of the biennial appropriations related to the variables audited at that institution.”

Combined net over-funding of universities (see Table 1) and health-related institutions totaled $2,525,781. However, each university's and health-related institution's errors fell below their individual 2 percent allowable error amount. The 2004–2005 biennium formula funding appropriations were $2,967,788,508 for 35 universities and $802,903,975 for eight of the nine health-related institutions. (The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler did not receive formula funding because it does not have students.)

The State Auditor's Office subjected the reported information to analytical tests and other procedures, including on-site risk assessments at six universities. During these site visits we conducted interviews and obtained detailed data from the student information systems to do further analysis on the accuracy of the reporting. Based on these tests and the institutions' self-audits, and because institutions have historically not exceeded the allowed 2 percent error rate, we did not conduct a comprehensive audit of any institution's credit hours. The institutions are still subject to an audit of credit hours in conjunction with any other work that might be performed by the State Auditor.

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