Gov. Bill Haslam Tuesday began a round of talks about higher education that, he said, may eventually lead to an infusion of more state funding and some restructuring of operations at the University of Tennessee and the Board of Regents systems.
But the governor told academic and business officials at the initial gathering that he sees a need for “measuring the quality of output by higher education,” especially as it applies producing graduates for available jobs, and for making the system more cost-efficient.
Haslam said he next plans seven regional “roundtable” discussions and will then decide whether to propose a package of legislation to the General Assembly in 2013. It may well be, he said, that most changes can be accomplished through administrative actions and the process will continue for “two or three years.”
The first focus, he said, is asking business, “What are you not getting from us that you need?” and collecting answers with the goal of making colleges better able to prepare graduates for jobs. That could include stepped-up counseling of students, he and others said.

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