A long-awaited study of the Air Force Institute of Technology recommends restoring a general's star to the commandant's position and closer ties with its Navy equivalent, but it warns of a growing funding shortfall and a perception that the school's future is still in doubt.

The study, due last September but delivered to congressional leaders on Monday, examines AFIT's roles and missions through 2010. AFIT is the Air Force's graduate school for engineering and management at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

It's a result of efforts by U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, to protect the graduate school from Air Force efforts to close it in the mid-1990s.

The study highlights challenges to AFIT as well as problems the high-tech Air Force is having meeting its requirements for officers steeped in science and engineering.

Various AFIT initiatives have increased engineering and science enrollment from below 50 percent to more than 80 percent. But it has been unable to reach 100 percent because of "personnel shortages in the science and engineering career fields throughout the Air Force," the report said.

The AFIT commandant, now a colonel's position, should have one-star general's status because of the "level and scope of responsibilities," the report said. The AFIT commandant's rank varied between one and two stars for decades until 1991, when it was downgraded to colonel.

"This change will elevate the prestige of the institution on Wright-Patterson and across the Department of Defense academic community," said DeWine, whose push to protect AFIT resulted in the study.

The Naval Postgraduate School, for example, is run by the equivalent of a two-star general, greatly outranking AFIT's commandant.

The report didn't recommend shortening AFIT's chain of command, which would give it more clout. AFIT is four links down from Air Force headquarters.

The report says AFIT still struggles to fill 10 faculty seats vacant from the mid-1990s, when 20 of 51 civilian faculty members retired or quit as Air Force officials sought to close the campus. Besides restrictive hiring laws, the report says AFIT still labors under "the perception that the school may close in the future despite assurances from both senior Air Force leadership and Congress that AFIT's future is secure."

Meanwhile, the report says AFIT faces a growing gap between funding and requirements. AFIT's budget fell from $80.7 million in 1996 to $79.9 million last year — a 4 to 5 percent annual decline counting inflation —while requirements and costs grew, according to the report. It estimates AFIT's funding gap will grow to $15.5 million by 2009.

Two years ago, DeWine pushed for a bill that would authorize AFIT by law, as is the Naval school. But Congress resisted, opting instead for budget language requiring the Air Force to write a report on AFIT's functions and the service's future plans for it.