“Putting that information in front of them will give them the best opportunity to match their skills and their dreams to what our great Ohio colleges can provide,” Mathews said.
The state can only regulate the state’s public colleges in this way, but Mathews said he hopes private colleges in Ohio follow the lead of the state and post similar information. He believes giving out this information will help Ohio’s universities and colleges be more competitive.
“I think it will also put our state colleges in a great position to market the value add they have for the very reasonable cost they have and the salary our students should expect,” Mathews said.
Already, the state attracts more students to its colleges than it sends to colleges out of state.
Ohio had 455,138 students in public colleges and universities as of fall 2022 semester, according to a preliminary count from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
Many colleges and universities already provide information on their websites about tuition, fees, graduation rates and more.
But students who want to find it need to search for it. This bill would require the universities and colleges to send a packet directly to students.
Mathews introduced the bill with Jim Thomas, R-Jackson Twp. on Feb. 7.
Jeff Robinson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Higher Education, said the department had been invited to meet with the sponsors of this bill and plan to do so in the next couple of weeks.
Laura Lanese, president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, which represents all of the state colleges in Ohio, said they had been working with Mathews and Thomas on the bill.
“We’ve had productive dialogue about how to accomplish his goals, and that we share his goals of access, affordability and completion,” she said.
Starting average salaries in 2022
Computer science majors earned $75,900.
Engineering majors earned $73,922.
Humanities majors had the lowest projected at $50,681.
Source: Bankrate.com
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