Constructing the cost of health professions education

Pressures at the national, state, and institutional levels are forcing health professions education administrators to justify their budget requests. Because unit cost studies traditionally used by higher education have proved unsatisfactory, program constructed cost models have been developed. The advantages of the model for administrators lie in the fact that any input unit of the model can be adjusted and the effects of that adjustment can be measured against the cost per student. In times of budget restrictions, these adjustments permit administrators to model various combinations of student enrollment, faculty involvement, class size, and basic program structure to obtain the optimal education experience from available resources. The model is applied by way of example to all nonbaccalaureate dental hygiene education programs in the United States.