Students across the nation have felt the sharp sting of rising tuition costs.
The National Center for Educational Statistics reported that between 2000 and 2011 the composite price of college — tuition, room and board — rose by 42 percent. That percentage is staggering, especially to those of us here at the U who have been directly affected by such increases.
The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) reported in its 2012 Data Book a tuition increase of almost 15 percent at the U between 2009 and 2012 alone. As the USHE numbers show, U students have been as hard hit by these tuition increases as the rest of the nation.
And the effects of rising tuition costs go further than just our pocketbooks.
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released a report in 2002 that stated, “Students are accumulating significant debt and are borrowing in record amounts. Many students work more hours than ever before to pay college expenses, spending less time on their studies. Some students select lower-priced institutions rather than those that better suit their intellectual interests and educational goals. And some students decide to attend college part-time rather than enroll full-time, often substantially prolonging their time in college.”
As the report shows, there are other costs to consider outside of the monetary cost of obtaining an education. Students are suffering mentally and physically in the pursuit of education — and they’re not even breaking even. With all of this stress, students are missing out on opportunities to learn.
The question to ask now is this: how can we make funding education more achievable?
Many colleges and universities around the country seem to have found a way to answer that question. One such university is the University of Texas at Dallas who has started offering a “Guaranteed Tuition Plan.” This tuition plan locks in a set tuition rate for incoming students and that rate is guaranteed for the next twelve semesters.
The plan not only alleviates some of the financial burden for students and families, but it also encourages students to graduate in a timely manner.
The U should adopt a similar plan to UT Dallas. The system would closely resemble the “catalog year” system that we currently use for majors, and students would be “locked” into a tuition rate that would remain constant for a certain number of semesters.
This would give students peace of mind; they would always know how much to set aside for each semester’s tuition and would be able to budget for their college education as a whole.
Implementing such a program would increase the number of prospective students and also provide those students with more incentive to graduate. And it could possibly lower student dropout rates overall. These different benefits would all increase the overall revenue to the University and provide students and faculty with a more satisfying learning experience.
More important than the financial benefits of employing such a program, however, is that students would be able to focus more on receiving an education as opposed to funding one.
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