Master plan repealed; accountability system continued

(a) The Legislature finds that: (1) Accountability and strategic planning are valuable and necessary components of establishing and achieving goals for higher education in this state and fulfilling missions of the institutions; (2) To be most effective and efficient, the accountability and strategic planning process should be coordinated, streamlined, and nonduplicative; and (3) Redundant reporting requirements exist in the accountability and strategic planning process which serve to waste scarce resources and decrease efficiency. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the accountability and strategic planning process for public higher education in this state continues in a unified and comprehensive manner while utilizing the resources of the higher education systems in an economical and efficient manner. To that end: (1) The requirement for a statewide master plan for public higher education is repealed, and any provision of this code regarding the plan is void and of no effect; (2) The requirements for state and institutional compacts for public higher education are repealed, and any provision of this code regarding the compacts are void and of no effect; and (3) When collecting data from an institution, the commission and council first shall consider data generated from the unit-record student, registration, course and personnel files, the audited financial statements, and any source previously submitted formally to the commission or council from which the requested data may be obtained, so long as the data or information available through these sources reflects the most current reporting period.