North Dakota's university system ranks high in the quality of staff and student performance, but it ranks low in terms of state funding, financial aid and tuition costs at two-year schools, according to a consultant working on a study of the system.

The study, conducted by MGT of America, a Texas-based firm, was commissioned by the Legislature last year after legislators haggled over a funding formula for the state's 11 colleges and universities.

Mary McKeown-Moak, a partner with MGT, was blunt when she told the Legislature's Higher Education Committee on Tuesday about some of the negative aspects of the state system.

"Your funding is relatively low, and you are not very equitable,"she said.

McKeown-Moak said the state should spend more on higher education, financial aid and deferred maintenance, and should come up with better ways to measure equity and performance among schools.

Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, who is chairman of the committee, said he was pleased to hear straightforward answers from the study.

"A lot of it was conventional wisdom that no one would say," Holmberg said.

The preliminary results of the study were presented Tuesday, and the final results and recommendations will be complete in March.

Another criticism of the system the study pointed out is tuition at two-year colleges.

"Two-year fees are very, very, very high,"McKeown-Moak said.

Donna Thigpen, president of Bismarck State College, a two-year college, said she would like policymakers to stick with specific goals to determine the percentage of costs paid by students versus the state. Thigpen said BSCstudents pay an unfair share of the costs of education compared to other schools in the system and among peer institutions in other states.

In the 2005 Legislature, lawmakers attempted to pass legislation that would have given more money to Bismarck State College, North Dakota State University and Lake Region State College in Devils Lake because those schools were determined to be the most underfunded, based on a funding formula. The formula compared each North Dakota school to a list of 10 out-of-state schools to determine equity.

McKeown-Moak suggested that the list of schools could be increased to 15.

According to information she presented, BSCstudents pay 140 percent of the tuition, on average, as other schools on the list, and receives about 48 percent of the costs of education from the state.

Thigpen said adding more schools to the lists probably won't have much of an impact on the formula.

Rep. Bob Martinson, R-Bismarck, said he wants the study to be specific as to which schools are unhappy about various aspects of the overall system to avoid future conflicts.

"If we don't know where the problem is, we don't know how to fix it,"Martinson said.

McKeown-Moak said the state will have a tougher time in the next biennium funding the university system because of increasing demands on the state's budget.

Holmberg said he has always told people working in higher education that when budgets are tight, legislators will set a higher priority on areas such as health care than they will for higher education.

(Reach reporter Tom Rafferty at 223-8482 or tom.rafferty@;bismarcktribune.com.)