The University’s new program to give tuition discounts to students taking late classes has been successful in its first week, officials said. As of Monday, 5,124 of the 6,127 discounted course seats were occupied, leaving only 17 percent of the seats unfilled.
The new system — which was approved by OUS as a five-year pilot program — is aimed at keeping tuition increases at a minimum by discounting classes offered at 3 p.m. or later.
“We’re looking for creative ways to charge (tuition) because we’re not adequately funded,” said David Doerksen, University accounts
receivable supervisor.
Under the new plan, undergraduates taking certain classes late in the day will get a discount. For instance, in-state students taking a four-credit class would get a discount of $48, while nonresident undergraduates would be refunded $228. A resident undergraduate student taking 16 credits — including four discounted credits — would pay about 10 percent less in tuition.
Students have expressed mixed feelings about the change.
Junior Ryan Stoner, a political science and religious studies major, said he didn’t understand the logic behind discounting evening classes, or even how the University was choosing which classes to discount.
“The new system is a little inconvenient because if you have a job or other obligations, taking classes in the evening is an imposition,” he said.
But sophomore Jason McLean said the new system had potential.
“Tuition is too high as it is, so it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.
Students have also had to adjust to more basic changes in the way they pay for classes, such as a new credit cost plateau.
Before the new system was implemented this year, students taking 12 to 18 credits paid a flat rate, an option available now only to students taking 13 to 16 credits.
Doerksen said the new system, while necessary to compensate for low state funding, is more complicated for undergraduate students because they are not always being charged a flat rate.
University Registrar Herb Chereck said the University’s overall accounting system had to be altered so that discounted classes could be considered an “exception” when assessing tuition for students. A full analysis will be done later this term to determine whether the new system is keeping total University tuition increases at 3 percent or less.
“We’re not aware of any problems yet,” he said.
For more information, visit:
http://registrar.uoregon.edu/students/registration/tuition.html.
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