|
|
|
|
|
IU sets tuition for 2001-02
June 5, 2001
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
1. How does Indiana University's tuition increase compare with those of other major universities?
Last month, Purdue University enacted a 7.5 percent tuition increase on all of its campuses. Ohio State University is expected to raise tuition by 9 percent for the fall semester, and has announced a long-range plan that includes similar tuition hikes each year for the next four or five years. For the upcoming academic year, the University of Illinois has enacted a 5 percent tuition increase for students on its Champaign-Urbana campus, along with a $500 surcharge for next year's incoming freshmen, which would increase to a $1,000 surcharge the following year. The Iowa Board of Regents has enacted a 9.9 tuition hike for the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Several Big Ten universities have not yet set tuition rates for next year. Tuition increases at Kentucky public colleges and universities range from 5.1 percent at the University of Kentucky to 10 percent at the University of Louisville.
2. Why is tuition rising at so many public universities?
The current economic downturn has resulted in tighter state budgets for all purposes, including higher education. While Indiana state leaders did their best to fund education adequately at all levels in the face of a difficult economic situation, the budgeted increases for existing programs at IU and Purdue will fall well short of the inflation rate. Meanwhile, the costs of energy and health care benefits -- significant expenses for universities -- are rising much faster than inflation.
Another factor impacting the budgets of public universities is the increased competition for the best faculty members. According to salary data compiled by the American Association of University Professors, private research universities in 1980 paid full professors, on average, $1,400 more than public research universities. In 2001, that gap has grown to $22,100. Clearly, public universities face increasingly difficult competition from private universities in retaining and attracting top professors. The pay gap also is widening between the best-paying and lower-paying public universities. Since IU's faculty members are the foundation of the university's academic reputation and are instrumental in the positive educational experiences of IU's students, the university must respond to this challenge.
3. How does this tuition plan do that?
The plan will allow IU to provide merit-based raises, on average, of 3 percent to 4 percent on all of its campuses. On the Bloomington campus, the tuition increase will allow the university to go a step further and permit individual academic units, with proper justification, to raise faculty salaries by an average of 6 percent. Those increases will be made for, among other reasons, recognition of exceptional performance and retention of sought-after faculty members. The university will also focus particular attention on increasing salaries of our assistant professors -- often promising, younger scholars -- an IUB faculty segment whose average pay placed them at the bottom of their Big Ten peers in the most recent salary survey.
4. Why is the tuition increase different for students at IU Bloomington and IUPUI than for students at regional campuses?
The proposal was drafted to meet the specific needs of individual campuses. As was described above, IU Bloomington must raise faculty salaries to stay competitive with its peers. At IUPUI, the majority of the tuition increase will be aimed at efforts to create new full-time faculty positions and to retain students.
At IUPUI and the regional campuses, a major challenge is retention -- providing the best opportunity for degree-seeking students to persist and graduate. That is vital in a state where the shortage of adults with bachelor's and higher-level degrees is a continuing concern. Two percentage points of the tuition increase at IUPUI and the regional campuses will go toward funding the replacement of part-time instructors with full-time instructors, an important factor in improving retention and graduation rates. One percentage point of the increase will support other retention initiatives developed by the individual campuses in concert with the Office of Student Development and Diversity.
5. Doesn't the university have a responsibility to control its costs, rather than simply passing along increased expenses to students?
IU does have that responsibility and is taking it seriously. In February 2000, the university undertook an administrative services review to make certain that it was delivering services in the most cost-effective way possible. The Arthur Andersen Higher Education Practice directed our review, which will result in real and lasting savings for the university, savings that will be re-invested in our academic mission. That is just one aspect of an ongoing effort to control costs.
IU has been just as serious about maintaining affordability of higher education. In each of the past three years, annual tuition increases for in-state IU students have been 4 percent or less -- the lowest in 20 years and below national averages during that period. The university has restrained tuition hikes despite having to depend to an increasing degree on student fees to support the budget. In 1990-91, the state provided 57 percent of the university's general fund revenues university-wide and 52 percent on the Bloomington campus. In 2000-01, the state provided 49 percent of general fund revenues university-wide and 40 percent in Bloomington.
6. Won't this increase curtail access to IU for many qualified students?
IU will continue to make financial aid available to the widest number of qualified students possible. In fact, next year's budget calls for an 8 percent increase in financial aid, an additional $3.6 million. That, of course, is augmented by financial aid money that will be available from state, federal and private sources.
(Susan Dillman, 812-855-0850 or pager 812-334-6377, sdillman@indiana.edu)