George Washington University may be notorious for being one of the most expensive schools in the United States, but at least one aspect of its tuition policy is distinctive and smart. The school assigns a fixed tuition rate for five years - assuming students remain in good academic standing. This approach is admirable because it gives families a long-term, guaranteed forecast for tuition. More colleges should consider adopting a similar policy to simplify the financial outlook of higher education for students.
Tuition at GW - $42,860 for the class of 2014 and for this year's transfer students - is a startling sum, but at least the school reduces the guessing game for families and gives them an exact figure for the cost of a GW education through the conclusion of a degree program. The policy eases concern especially for families that might not be able to take on additional tuition increases. Any uncertainty that can be eliminated for consumers is highly beneficial in an unsteady economy. Colleges able to make this commitment are at a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting students, particularly during lean economic times.
Although this plan has merits, it would be difficult to implement at the University of Virginia. GW is a private university that enjoys a hefty endowment and does not need to worry about declining state support or inflexible state regulations as do public colleges. The University is relatively self-sufficient and receives only 6.3 percent of its overall budget from the state, but the General Assembly has considerable influence over the University's operations and policies, including its tuition rate. Nevertheless, even if the University enjoys less autonomy than GW, administrators should explore ways to give students and families as realistic an assessment of future rates as is possible.
With this convenience, though, comes drawbacks. First, it is difficult for schools to predict expenses several years ahead of time, which may result in setting tuition higher or lower than is optimal. Second, each tuition hike would only affect the incoming class initially, so it would take longer for schools to benefit financially from increases. Third, in the case of GW, the fixed rate does not apply to the costs of housing or other student fees. Consequently, education costs still may vary somewhat during a student's college years. Thus, any school following this model would need to resist the urge to shift costs around to recoup losses from inflexible tuition rates.
Of course, fixed tuition does not guarantee an affordable education. In fact, tuition rose 16 percent when GW instituted its policy in 2004 to compensate for expected cost increases during the following four years. Tuition increases have since been moderate with increases of about 3 percent annually during the past three years. The University, in contrast, raised tuition by 9.9 percent last year - more than three times GW's rate - in response to diminishing state funding. As a result, fixing tuition costs for students is somewhat unrealistic for a state university.
There may be a middle ground. Even if fixing tuition rates is infeasible or unwise for public colleges, the spirit of GW's policy can be imitated simply by communicating more frankly about tuition costs with incoming students and their families. Although there is no crystal ball to predict what actions the General Assembly or Board of Visitors may take in the future, University officials have reasonable expectations about what direction tuition costs are headed. The University would do well to present this information to students as fairly as it can, through e-mail, letter or otherwise, and include the stipulation that these charges are subject to change based upon action beyond administrators' control.
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