The Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education will set the tuition levels for the coming academic year when it meets next week, but this week, they met for discussions on possible changes to the way tuition decisions are made.
The board’s University Success Committee on Monday considered recommendations from the System’s self-study, including adopting a tuition model that allows tuition rates to vary based on the course of study and “regional affordability”, making more institutional student aid, and in a move parents would surely appreciate, setting tuition in April rather than in July. The big obstacle there is that tuition would be set before the System’s state budget allocation is.
The study by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems shows more than 10,000 students left the fourteen State System schools between 2011-12 and 2015-16. The largest group to leave was students whose families earned between $48,000 and $75,000 per year, which should be the core of the State System enrollment. There’s been a corresponding increase in students from families making more than $110,000 per year, but that group is far smaller than the middle income group.
Interim chancellor Karen Whitney says setting tuition in April would allow parents to plan better and get their financing lined up earlier. One possibility would be considering tuition trends for the last ten years, but that is problematic…tuition has increased an average of 3.5 percent per year for the last decade, and automatically raising it every year would not be popular.
The board will meet next Wednesday and Thursday. The changes could come under consideration then or at the October meeting.
