Flat-rate tuition system weighed

                                                 Miami Herald

 

Being a full-time undergrad at some Florida schools may soon mean paying a flat rate for tuition, no matter how many classes you take.

BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ

mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com

Florida's state university system is mulling a one-size-fits-all tuition structure for full-time students -- an idea that could lead some to graduate sooner, but also carries the risk of students biting off more than they can chew.

Under the plan, which could receive receive final approval from the state Board of Governors as soon as November, full-time students at participating universities would pay a flat rate per semester, regardless of how many classes he or she actually takes.

The pricing structure, known as block tuition, is already the norm at private universities across the country, and has been adopted by some high-profile public universities as well, including The University of Texas at Austin and UCLA.

An exact pricing model for Florida schools has yet to be hammered out, and schools may decide to charge slightly different rates.

If a school chose 15 credit hours as the standard, a student taking only 12 credits would be paying for a class he or she wasn't taking. On the plus side, a student taking 18 credits would be taking an extra class for free.

If approved by the Board of Governors, schools could then request to make the switch -- or they could opt to keep the current per-credit pricing.

``We're giving it serious consideration,'' said University of Florida Provost Joseph Glover. ``It accelerates students' progress toward graduation. . .it's definitely an encouragement for students to take additional hours toward their degree.''

UF could potentially begin charging block tuition as early as fall 2011.

South Florida's two state universities, Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University, have yet to take a position on the issue.

``We have not done the analysis of how the proposal would affect FIU,'' spokeswoman Maydel Santana-Bravo said in an e-mail. ``At the moment we are focused on maintaining quality and improving the student experience.''

A class load of 12 credit hours -- the equivalent of four classes -- is considered full time, but students must take 15 credits hours each semester to earn a standard bachelor's degree in four years. Taking less than 15 credits often results in the student needing to stay an extra semester, or year, in school.

Students who in the past might have taken 12 credit hours might take that extra class -- feeling they should get what they pay for -- and end up graduating sooner.

Of course, setting the definition higher than the current average class load would also likely result in increased tuition revenues, as students who decide to stick with their current pace would have to pay for more credits than they are actually taking.

``Usually what this does is it's a way of having a tuition increase without calling it a tuition increase,'' said Mark Kantrowitz, a college financial aid expert who publishes Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. Kantrowitz cautioned that students who add more classes to get greater bang for their buck may ultimately become stretched too thin, and their grades could suffer.

Five years ago, Florida's universities considered a switch to block tuition, but the idea became bogged down in a tug of war between the Legislature and Board of Governors over who had tuition-setting authority.

The two sides are now working together seamlessly -- paving the way for the block tuition idea to go forward. The biggest hurdle left may be whether each of Florida's 11 public universities decides block tuition is right for them.

The financial wallop to students would likely be more-pronounced at local schools like FIU, where undergrads tend to be working adults who are a couple of years older than traditional undergrads. These students may find it more difficult than their UF counterparts to take a 15-credit or 18-credit classload.

``There's a reason they're only taking 12 credits,'' said William-Jose Velez, the student government senate speaker at FIU's main West Miami-Dade campus.

Velez said the proposal ``would place an unfair burden on those that are not taking a full course load.''

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