Seeking to reward colleges that graduate students "on time," New York State Gov. George Pataki has proposed giving the colleges $500 for each student who earns a bachelor's degree in four years and $250 for each student who earns an associate's degree in two years.

The plan, called the Partnership to Accelerate Completion Time, is aimed at reducing what students and taxpayers spend on higher education.

State budget officials said the plan was modeled after similar programs at the State University of New York College at Fredonia and at the City University of New York's Brooklyn campus. They said a handful of colleges in other states had also tried it.

"Delayed completion of an associate or bachelor degree causes students to remain in college longer than necessary and produces increased costs for families, institutions and state taxpayers," the budget legislation says.

State Education Department statistics show that of students who entered college in 1997, only 12 percent of those at CUNY, 40 percent of those at SUNY and 52 percent of those at private colleges earned bachelor's degrees within four years. The percentages of associate's degree students who earned their degrees in two years were even lower.

Under the program, a student would have to sign up and meet requirements for making progress toward their degrees. Colleges would be obligated to provide the courses students needed when they needed them, or to pay the tuition and fees if a student needed to stay longer. Colleges would get credit only for students who signed up and then graduated in the prescribed time.

SUNY and CUNY would be required to participate; private nonprofit colleges would be allowed to join.