Tuition for carrying a minimum, full-time schedule increased by $168 per term for in-state students and $492 per term for out-of-state students this year alone — a reflection of the growing financial crisis for public university systems across the country.
And none is worse than the University of California system, which saw tuition increase by a staggering 18 percent this year— the product of $650 million in state funding cuts. The most recent tuition hikes have prompted some in higher education to drastically reconsider the current funding model for public universities.
At UC Riverside, students in a group called Fix UC@@http://www.fixuc.org/@@ think they have a solution, and it has been getting the attention of universities across the country.
Fix UC proposes getting rid of tuition all together.
Instead of paying tuition, students would pay 5 percent of their income upon employment after graduation for 20 years. Other incentives factor in: For example, those who stay within the state would have reduced payments due to contributions already being made through the local tax base. In the end, Fix UC believes the system would not only mean that students are better off financially, but it would experience a dramatic increase in revenue based off the success of their alumni.@@smart@@
“The problem that the UC system faces is maintaining quality without increasing tuition,” said Chris LoCascio,@@http://www.fixuc.org/about/@@ the president of Fix UC. “Although Fix UC is based off the UC model, the same underlying concepts could be applied to any university. The UC system can be a pioneer in creative, out-of-the box models to helping other university systems.”
Without a doubt, the Oregon University System finds itself facing the same conundrum that the California system and countless others are currently experiencing: Keep raising tuition or sacrifice the quality of the education.
Many students across the country are already encumbered with large amounts of debt that must be paid off after college; in 2010, a University student graduated with an average of $21,000 in debt. Last month, President Obama called for universities to lower tuition and proposed a bill that would link federal aid to tuition rates, emphasizing the fiscal need for nationwide tuition reform.
Yet a number of concerns have been expressed in regard to the Fix UC proposal, one of which emphasizes the possibility of disparity among future student bodies.
“The kind of program that Fix UC proposes might stratify who attends your university,” said Diane Saunders,@@http://www.ous.edu/news_and_information/bios/saunders.php@@ the director of communications for OUS. “For those who might have higher incomes, it may be too much to pay in the long run.”@@what? having higher incomes would have them pay less as a percentage of their pay@@
She suggested that a solution to this problem could be making the program non-mandatory, with the option to either participate in the essentially interest-free student loan proposed by Fix UC or utilize the current tuition system.
“We really need to be developing creative financing models, and it’s important to test these concepts,” she said. “Not all will be viable.”
Even so, ASUO President Ben Eckstein expressed his support for a proposal like Fix UC, citing the overall goal as limiting or preventing tuition increases.
“The work of students in the last decade has allowed Oregon to avoid triple-digit tuition increases, but a movement like this would be absolutely acceptable,” Eckstein said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t see a ‘Fix OUS’ movement at Oregon.”