by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org
The Vermont House approved a provision Wednesday that will allow the University of Vermont to lower out-of-state tuition rates for graduate school courses and create flat rates for online graduate school courses.
Since 1959, the state has required the quasi-public university to charge Vermont students no more than 40 percent of the out-of-state tuition rate for a graduate level course of study. If the Senate approves H.876, that protection for Vermont graduate level students will go away, and UVM officials say they will be able to bring down the out-of-state tuition rates for graduate level courses without having to drop the in-state price. Under current law, the College of Medicine at UVM has an exemption from the 40 percent rule.
Rep. Michele Kupersmith (D-South Burlington) helped design the newly created group charged with taking stock of the state’s many workforce development efforts. Photo by Hilary Niles/VTDigger
Rep. Michele Kupersmith on Wednesday made a last-ditch effort to limit the scope of the change. She proposed the elimination of the 40 percent rule on 12 new graduate school programs and a requirement that the college provide the General Assembly with an annual report detailing the outcomes of pricing for the new courses. Her amendment failed 32-108 on the House Floor.
Instead, lawmakers approved language in the underlying technical education bill, H.876, that eliminates the so-called “40 percent” rule for all graduate level courses. No future reporting to the Legislature is required.
Undergraduate students would still pay 40 percent of the cost of out-of-state tuition, under the new legislation.
University of Vermont officials say the 40 percent discount ratio for Vermont graduate students has made it difficult for the college to offer competitive graduate level courses for out-of-state students.
The change in statute, if it is approved by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, will allow the university to lower out-of-state tuition for graduate level courses, without also having to discount class prices for in-state students. It currently costs $14,000 for in-state and $35,000 for out-of-state tuition for two semesters in UVM’s graduate school programs.
Kupersmith says she is worried that the change in policy will hurt Vermont students who are already weighed down by debt and who need access to low-cost graduate courses — on campus and online.
“What is the university going to do with pricing if the amendment goes into effect, and they have the freedom to price online courses and graduate courses? We don’t know,” Kupersmith said. “I’m OK with giving the university the ability to be nimble and strategic, I just want to know (the impact in future). I also want to limit the change.”
Rep. Johanna Donovan, D-Burlington, defended UVM’s proposal. She said Kupersmith’s proposal would put a damper on academic freedom and “dictate to our university what they must do.”
Cindy Forehand, dean of the Graduate College at UVM, says the university’s out-of-state rates are too high, and they need to reduce those rates in order to attract more graduate and online students.
University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan. Photo courtesy of University Communications
The college does not intend to raise in-state rates for on campus graduate courses, she said; online graduate level classes, however, could be set at a flat rate, somewhere between the in-state and out-of-state tuition levels.
“President (Thomas) Sullivan wants to increase access for Vermonters,” Forehand said. “I don’t see this requirement to change the 40 percent rule as going against that in any way, it’s consistent with his message to the state.”
UVM’s graduate school programs attract about 1,400 non-medical graduate and Ph.D. students a year. About 50 percent of graduate students are from out of state; 30 percent of Ph.D. candidates are from out of state. Forehand says that 16 percent to 17 percent of all students at the college are taking graduate level courses. At most institutions UVM’s size, graduate students make up 20 percent to 25 percent of the student body, she said.
UVM hopes to attract more out-of-state students to as many as eight new graduate programs for public health, engineering, sustainable business practices and leadership now under development. Graduate school and online programs are two areas of growth the university wants to pursue, now that undergraduate enrollment is maxed out.
“One of the things we are trying to do is effectively grow these graduate programs that are not historically an area of growth,” Forehand said.
Rep. David Potter, D-Clarendon, said in the 1960s the state made a commitment to give more money to UVM to subsidize the 40 percent rule, but that support didn’t materialize and the university began to rely on out-of-state tuition to subsidize programs for Vermonters. “As Vermonters, we all think of that as a good thing,” Potter said. But in the long run, the growing gap between in-state and out-of-state tuition will hurt the university, in his view.
The 40 percent rule costs UVM $15 million annually. The state of Vermont supports 6 percent of the university’s total budget.
Rep. Chris Pearson. VTD/Josh Larkin
“At some point, out-of-state tuition is going to be too high and with that we will see declining enrollments, and then what does that do to course offerings?” Potter said. “Pretty quickly you’re pricing yourself out of business and this hurts educational opportunities for Vermonters and out-of-staters.”
Other representatives were chagrined by the change and believe that elimination of the 40 percent rule will make it harder for Vermonters to improve their skills at a time when employers complain it is difficult to find qualified workers. Rep. Patsy French, D-Randolph, said teachers work toward master’s degrees at the expense of local school districts and an increase in graduate fees for in-state students could drive up property tax rates.
Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, said he asked UVM officials to consider pegging the in-state discount to a floor course credit price or a higher percentage between 40 percent and 100 percent. Pearson said the college rejected those ideas and refused to consider a middle ground.
“My frustration is, we seem to do this in the Legislature all the time, we listen to large institutions — hospitals, universities, big business — we accommodate their needs and we kind of hope that it will jive with the needs of working Vermonters, and we only throw working Vermonters overboard,” Pearson said. “We never say to our institutions, ‘Sorry it’s not going to work for us,’ and it’s really frustrating. You see it with the budget. This theme is repeated over and over, and for me it’s frustrating to consider any proposal that could dramatically increase the price for Vermonters who want to get credits at UVM.
“I hear from business leaders we need a better educated work force, we’re offering jobs, we’re trying to hire people and we don’t have the right skill set,” Pearson said. “So the legislative response is to potentially make it more expensive for people to get advanced degrees? That seems ridiculous to me.”