State Funding
More Students Crossing State Lines for Tuition Discount Programs
Colleges with certain specialized majors have had recent success luring out-of-state students with tuition discounts. If a student is looking for a particular focus, such as an MBA with a logistics concentration, and cannot find that program within state borders, many states have programs to offer that student their own in-state tuition cost to attend an out-of-state university. As BusinessWeek reports, these exchange programs have become more popular as more students shop for their educations by price tag. In the southern U.S., the number of students who were approved for such discounts increased 30.7 percent to a record high of 2,743. Read More.
Tuition Hikes Higher at Public Colleges than Private for 5th Year Running
Tuition is on the rise in most every sector of higher education, and public tuition and fees for public institutions has again outpaced similar private institutions. As the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, average tuition rose 8.3 percent in 2011 to $8,244 for a four-year program. California, whose public tuition rose 21 percent last year, had a large pull on this average. The State of California enrolls about 10 percent of the country’s full-time students attending public four-year colleges, and about 15 percent of those at public two-year colleges. So when the state’s public colleges have a big tuition hike—as they did this year—it. Read More.
Student Fees Increasing as State Support Declines
USA Today reports that colleges are finding themselves in need of increasing student fees in order to fill gaps created by diminished state funding. Indiana University-Bloomington is adding a $180 “temporary repair and maintenance fee” this fall; next year it doubles. Freshmen and transfer students this fall at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale will be charged a one-time $150 “matriculation fee” for orientation costs. Students at Georgia’s public universities will pay 3% more in tuition, but with fees the increase jumps to an average 9% more than last year. The rise is driven primarily by a “special institutional fee” that will. Read More.