Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Interesting Idea

by Andrew Gillen

One way for the cost of higher education to be reduced is to cut back on the number of students attending for 5 or 6 years. David Albo, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, has a suggestion:
Virginia’s in-state college students should be required to pay the more expensive out-of-state tuition rates once they exceed the 120 credit hours necessary to graduate, a member of the House of Delegates proposed Tuesday.
Cool idea. HT: Eduwonk

4 comments:

Frank said...

This is a great idea.

Collin Hitt said...

This would put in place a huge disincentive for changing majors. It is not usual for college juniors - or even seniors - to realize that their chosen major is not their calling. Telling students that they'll have to pay big, if they don't get it right the first time, puts a lot of pressure on students to remain with a major chosen when they were perhaps only weeks removed from high school.

Matt G. said...

Collin: You're absolutely right...in the short term. I would hope that students would then put pressure on Colleges to reduce the barriers (in terms of credit hours) for changing majors.

At my college, there were stupid and unnecessary differences in Tier-2 requirements even for changing majors within a school . A specific example: a computer-engineering degree required 2 quarters each of physics and chemistry. A computer-science degree, from the same department, required 3 quarters of either physics or chemistry (you pick), and one quarter of the other. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

ajupresident said...

The best solution to all these cost problems is to let the free market work it out....

The solution to this problem is to engage 21st century marketing techniques and apply them to education. Andrew Jackson University is using a series of network marketing partners that have allowed the University to create the Sponsored Tuition program. Applicants to the University enroll through one of the partner sites and get access to a zero tuition plan. There is mandatory fee structure, but without tuition, the total cost per semester has been driven below $500 - and without any government subsidies.

Andrew Jackson University maintains institutional accreditation through the Distance Education and Training Council. (www.detc.org) The DETC is the only accrediting association approved by the US Department of Education solely for the purpose of accrediting distance institutions. AJU is a Title IV eligible school, but is not participating, which also eliminates another significant cost factor.