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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2010 > November > 16 > Entry
Colleges face balancing act with tuition hikes
As Ohio colleges and universities possibly face less state support next June, they will have free rein to hike tuition prices after four years of either cost freezes or caps.
The cap helped keep Ohio tuition affordable and competitive, but in the face of looming state budget cuts, schools are looking for flexibility and ways to fill what is now an uncertain gap. It is a careful balance. Hiking tuition and fees too far will fly in the face of the new governor’s ideas about higher education.
Gov.-elect John Kasich says the cost of higher education is rising too fast — faster even than health care, he says — and the funding model is “unsustainable.” He wants to cut spending, share resources, grow online education and improve historically low graduation rates. “Higher education must also be held accountable,” Rob Nichols, his press secretary said in a statement.
Local university presidents seem to be on board with these ideas; many of them were begun under Gov. Ted Strickland. But with the state facing a daunting budget shortfall leaders at schools — especially those that have a mission of affordability — are looking hard at their options.
“We are totally committed to, even obsessed with, affordability. Anything that threatens that concerns us,” said Steven Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College, which like Wright State University has fought to keep tuition low in order to serve a wider variety of students. Johnson has top college officials already looking at budgeting scenarios and David Hopkins, WSU president, said a funding “cushion” was built into the current budget. “Our history of fiscal conservatism has so far enabled the university to weather state budget challenges and continue to grow,” Hopkins said.
To stay affordable Central State University has kept tuition flat even when officials could have raised it 3.5 percent a year under the cap. Now with stagnant enrollment and more pending cuts from the state John Garland, CSU president, has said they will look at raising tuition next year after having to cut $2.8 million out this year’s budget.
Miami University has a committee working to create a sustainable budget by finding new ways to generate revenue while cutting costs. Efforts include “enhancing the quality and selectivity” of new students, increasing cooperation between campuses and possibly reorganizing academic divisions.
Under Gov. Ted Strickland higher education saw modest increases in state support although it remained below the national average. Last year, four-year tuition costs average $1,000 more than the national average, the College Board’s recent “Trends in College Pricing” found. Still, Ohio’s tuition grew last year at an average of 4.5 percent, a rate less than the 8 percent national average. This is proof to Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, that the state is on track to provide every prospective student “low cost options” for a degree.
Recent changes simplifying the transfer of credits, the increase in online learning and partnerships between two-year and four-year schools all lower the cost for students, Fingerhut said. “It gives student the ability to craft low cost pathways to higher education.”
Fingerhut said he would recommend giving large four-year schools flexibility to fund their major objectives like attracting top students and doing job-creating research while helping two-year and access schools keep the path to a degree open to everyone. “A commitment to low cost is a cornerstone of our strategic plan,” he said.
Sean Creighton, executive director of the Southwest Ohio Council for Higher Education, said these changes have put Ohio on the “cutting edge” when it comes to improving higher education access. “People look to Ohio now to see what we are doing here,” he said.
It is still unclear what role Fingerhut will play in Kasich’s administration. He was appointed to a five-year Cabinet post by Strickland after bipartisan support from the General Assembly. During the campaign Kasich said everyone including Fingerhut would be evaluated. Fingerhut appears ready to stick around.
“I’m eager to continue and work with the new administration and the general assembly,” he said. “My passion for this has not waned.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Colleges and Universities
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By Max
November 19, 2010 9:27 AM | Link to this
It may be a mistake to interfere with higher education’s tuition increases with the same cutlery used in the PK-12 public education funding. With a 54% (I think I recall that figure correctly) graduation rate for new students spending 6 years in Ohio’s colleges perhaps a thinning of the herd through tuition hikes will improve those figures since secondary public education in Ohio hasn’t done its job in students’ preparation.