CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With cuts of more than 20 percent per full-time equivalent (FTE) student, state support for public higher education is below its 2008 level in 46 states. Public research universities, in particular, have been hit still harder. Between 2008 and 2013, state-appropriation support declined by more than 26 percent in the median public research university. 

Public colleges and universities are grappling with diminishing resources, largely because of significant declines in state funding over the years.

The average state is now spending 20 percent less per student than it did at the start of the recession in 2008, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research organization. Some public higher education systems are experiencing much deeper cuts.

TRENTON -- New Jersey's "lackluster" financial support of its colleges and universities has led to increased tuition, ballooning student debt and erosion in the quality of higher education, according to a new report.

Public colleges and universities have historically served their own state residents, but the number of out-of-state freshmen attending them has nearly doubled since 1986, according to Department of Education data.