Dive Brief:
- University Business offers an analysis of the number of colleges and universities offering tuition benefits to employees, and the long-term financial ramifications of maintaining traditions in benefit offerings.
- More than 97% of institutions offer tuition remission options to full-time employees, and more than 89% offer tuition support for children of full-time employees, plans which some experts say are financially unfeasible to maintain.
- Tuskegee University is an example of one institution which had to eliminate free tuition for the relatives of employees, as a cost saving measure.
Dive Insight:
Higher education is one of the unique industries where tradition simultaneously serves as its greatest asset and threat. Changing a program like tuition remission can impact labor negotiations and faculty attitudes towards leadership, and create public relations issues for matters that, if handled with transparency and shared governance, can be avoided.
Institutions which are looking to modify or cut these kind of benefits should first engage faculty in advance to share the participation rates, full costs and impact of keeping and maintaining such programs, and sharing full insight on other options that can be modified if it is not the full will of the campus for them to be cut.