Education is a business, especially in the Commerce School. Or is it vice-versa? The bottom-line is: Commerce students pay $3,000 above standard undergraduate University tuition. The Board of Visitors instituted this differential tuition after it was pitched to them this time last year, and the Commerce School has profited.
The Cornell Higher Education Research Institute just released a report which investigated whether differential tuition is trending in public higher education. They determined it is trending by examining different institutions' websites. "The process by which differential tuition policies have arisen and been have [sic] spread across American public higher education institutions has not been examined," the report lamented, leaving us with more typos - one - than conclusions. Between that cursory approach, Times New Roman and paint-by-numbers bar graphs, the study should take lessons learned from our Commerce School to improve its presentation.
The study found two main ways differential tuition is structured. Either prices rise as students become upperclassmen or different rates are applied for specific degrees and schools. The likelihood of an undergraduate institution having either model was equal. The University, however, blends both approaches by charging differential tuition only to those upperclassmen in the Commerce School.
Yet we can do some theoretical toothpicking, regardless. The concept of differential tuition gains momentum from the faculty perspective. Professors are often eligible for job offers elsewhere, and so universities need to pay competitive salaries to retain them. Depending on the market value of the profession, different schools' salaries should be funded by differential tuitions. And so, it is no surprise differential tuitions are most common among business, engineering and nursing schools. The Board acknowledged last February, in fact, that the University's Engineering School could be the next place for a differential tuition to be implemented.
But what of the students' perspective? Certainly increased tuition would dissuade people from low-income backgrounds from studying certain disciplines. Yet if some of the additional money from differential tuition is paid into financial aid programs, the cost and benefits could weigh out. At least currently, that is, without state limitations on how tuition revenues are allocated.
There is also psychology to account for. Marked-up tuition might be a disincentive to enroll in a certain school. Still, knowing that schools or programs charge higher rates because work in that field is potentially lucrative could be compelling enough for a student to shell out and enroll, at whatever cost demanded.
Differential tuition has become common among doctoral schools and is now trickling down to the undergraduate level. When the University next finds itself thinking of having to raise tuition, it should not dismiss such plans as foolish. Asking what tuition a degree requires is the same as asking the value of an education, and for this there are no ready answers. None are needed, though, for the Board to consider extending differential tuition from the Commerce School to the rest of us.
"Differentials" are, for most, the trigger word to a math-induced nightmare. Commerce School students are smart enough to understand the term, and if they have the answers, let's copy them.
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