Dive Brief:
- Pennsylvania’s higher education governing board approved a handful of new price structures at four of its state universities last week.
- The changes impact California University of Pennsylvania, and Edinboro, Mansfield and Shippensburg universities, which will shift from flat tuition to per-credit tuition rates — or see increases if that model is already in place, either freezing the rate for current students or phasing it in over several years.
- Not surprisingly, the "pilot" programs have already garnered criticism from some in the state's higher ed community, with professor and union head Ken Mash saying they are tuition and fee increases no matter how they're called and that the state should seek more data before adding to students' financial burdens, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Dive Insight:
Colleges and universities across the country are having to figure out new ways to raise additional revenue in the face of low state investment and, in some cases, cuts. Wisconsin institutions, for example, will have $250 million less over the next two years, and Illinois institutions could also face fairly significant cuts — though that state still hasn’t agreed to a budget more than three months after its deadline.
Nationwide, the family and student responsibility for education has gone up, making additional proposals like the ones in Pennsylvania particularly contentious.