March 8, 2008

Some Colleges Cut Tuition for Out-of-State Students

Many public colleges are reducing out-of-state tuition in an effort to diversify the student body and raise money, The New York Times reports.

California State University-East Bay began participating this year in a regional program that lowers tuition — though not quite to in-state levels — for students from several Western states. Mohammad H. Qayoumi, East Bay’s president, tells the Times his goal is to create a university that is “really a microcosm of the world.”

Such reciprocity agreements are nothing new, but the Times article says that more public college campuses are signing on.

The arrangements have aroused criticism from people like Ted Kanavas, a Wisconsin state senator who believes that state-supported institutions should benefit students from the home state. In 2006 the University of Wisconsin system began allowing its campuses to participate in the Midwest Student Exchange Program of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact.

Mr. Kanavas, a Republican, tells the Times, “A student who may have grown up on a family farm who attends the University of Wisconsin and gets an advanced degree from the University of Wisconsin is more likely to stay here, more likely to build a company, more likely to build value for our state.”

Proponents of the reciprocity agreements maintain that they are not money-losers for taxpayers. At East Bay, the Times notes, nonresidents will pay $11,481 in the coming year, California residents will pay $3,345, and students in the exchange program will pay $4,731. —Don Troop

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