WICHE Publications : Business and community leaders

  • Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates 8th Edition, December 2012

    This 8th edition of WICHE's Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates (click for website) includes data on enrollments and graduates by state and for major racial/ethnic groups covering the period from 2009-10 to 2027-28.

    2012 ~ 149pp. ~ Pub #2A366 ~ PDF ~ LINK ~ 3 MB (entire publication)~ DOWNLOAD

  • College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) Program

    The brief discusses promising new ideas and methods that states in WICHE's College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) Network are employing to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. The brief focuses on how Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming are utilizing partnerships with other entities, FAFSA completion programs, peer mentoring, and need-based financial aid in implementing their federally-funded CACG programs. 

    2011 ~ 8pp. ~ Pub #2A378 ~ Printed copies available ~ PDF ~ 166 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Crisis/Opportunity — WICHE 2011 Annual Report
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    In the face of dwindling state support to adequately fund higher education, we know we still need to produce more postsecondary graduates; and because we need to reach deeper into the low-income and minority communities to do so, controlling costs and keeping tuition affordable is critical. Along with challenging economic circumstances (and in some cases because of them), four issues have come to the forefront in the West, in addition to the key issue of productivity: performance funding; governance changes; accountability; and innovation. It is clear that the demands on our higher education systems and our institutions will continue to grow and that state funding levels will not keep pace. Let's hope the last year, challenging though it was for many states, yields more such innovations in the future.

    2011 ~ PDF ~ 949 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Medical Education
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    This report highlights three interrelated workforce issues of importance to physicians and medical schools that prepare individuals for a career in medicine: the shortage of physicians and the planned expansion of medical school enrollment, medical student indebtedness, and primary care physician service with emphasis on care delivery in rural areas. The West’s demographics present unique challenges in educating our future healthcare professionals, and this analysis suggests strategies for how Western states can link their resources to respond, particularly in higher education.

    2008 ~ 16pp. ~ PDF ~ 289 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Oral Healthcare
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    The development of the future oral healthcare workforce is a central focus of WICHE, which has a long history of partnering with states to improve access to dental and other professional training via the Professional Student Exchange Program. This report highlights some of the key trends, issues, and challenges the WICHE region is facing with regard to the oral health care workforce.

    2008 ~ 15pp. ~ PDF ~ 1.47 MB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Pharmacy
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    Pharmacy, with more than 230,000 practitioners today, is the third-largest health profession in the United States. Research on the national pharmacist workforce points to a continuing shortage of pharmacists, related to growth in medication use, the aging of the baby boomer generation, and the emergence of more clinical activities within pharmacies. Surveys that track shortage levels showed that there was a slow downward trend in the severity of shortages up until fall 2005, followed by higher shortage levels during the past year. Changes in shortage levels appear to parallel growth in prescription medication usage. WICHE’s Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP) allows students from states that do not have a public school of pharmacy to pay reduced tuition to a cooperating institution in the West. Sending states determine the number of new students to be supported each year. In 2006-07, 40 students from Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada attended 16 cooperating pharmacy schools.

    2008 ~ 4pp. ~ PDF ~ 180 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • Higher Education : The Engine of Economic Opportunity - WICHE Workplan 2009
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    In fiscal 2009 WICHE and its four units - Public Policy and Research, Programs and Services, WCET, and Mental Health - will work to build a better education engine via our efforts in our five areas: finance, access and success, workforce and social issues, technology and innovoation, and accountability.

    2008 ~ 19pp. ~ PDF ~ 256 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • WICHE Region - Medical School Expansion Activity

    An overview of expansion plans for schools of medicine in the West, highlighted by states, medical schools, first-year student enrollments, expansion activities, and contact information.

    2008 ~ 11pp. ~ PDF ~ 73 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • WICHE Region – Medical School Rural-related Activities

    A summary of rural-related activities at schools of medicine in the West outlined by states, medical schools, student participation, recruitment methods, and contact information.

    2008 ~ 17pp. ~ PDF ~ 95 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • A Closer Look at Healthcare Workforce Needs in the West : Health Information Technology
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    With significant, industrywide advancements in health information technology (IT), institutions of higher education in the West will be called upon to provide a new generation of health IT graduates. New academic programs must be developed, existing programs will need to be retooled, and student recruitment strategies will be required to meet the health IT workforce demands of the future.

    2007 ~ 6pp. ~ PDF ~ 902 KB~ DOWNLOAD

  • State Inventory of Rural Health Practice Incentives in the Western WICHE States
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    Attracting health, oral health, and behavioral health professionals to rural and underserved areas continues to be an enormous challenge. Lower salaries, high educational debt load, professional isolation, and urban-centric policy barriers in underserved and rural areas are deterrents for professionals. WICHE and its 15 member states want to develop a comprehensive strategy for the regional health care workforce to help recruit, train, and retain professionals to serve the rural areas of the West.

    2007 ~ 94pp. ~ PDF ~ 545 KB~ DOWNLOAD