A man walks on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus before the start of semester, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Los Angeles, California, US, Sept 28, 2020.(Photo: agencies)
As most colleges and universities in the United States continue with remote education instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are divided over whether to offer discounted tuition rates for the upcoming semester.
While a growing number of universities are slashing tuition and fees to lure students back, some have announced no tuition cuts despite the move to online classes. Officials at Stanford University, which has not discounted its tuition since the start of the pandemic, said they do not expect to do so in future quarters even "if online instruction is needed".
Stanford's tuition for undergraduate students is $18,491 for spring this year.
Shirley Xia, a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said many students demanded a tuition break, but the university refused. As written on the university's website, tuition is "heavily subsidized" by the university, so "all students, including those paying full tuition, receive a significant discount relative to the university's actual cost".
"Online instruction is not as effective as in-person classes," Xia said. "I think the professors are not used to this new model and some of them were not prepared for this when the school first switched to online teaching."
The University of California system and California State University system also do not offer discounts for online classes. They have announced that "tuition and mandatory fees have been set regardless of the method of instruction and will not be refunded".
California State University, the largest university system in the US with more than 480,000 students, had moved about 93 percent of its roughly 81,000 courses last fall online.
During an online meeting with students in August, Chancellor Timothy P. White explained that tuition and fees remained unchanged because classes and supplemental services such as tutoring, library support and career development were still on offer online.
Reduced fees
Other schools including Princeton, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities have cut tuition by 10 percent for the current academic year because the pandemic has significantly diminished student experience.
But Johns Hopkins will not extend tuition discounts to this year. Princeton and Georgetown universities will still continue to offer a 10 percent discount for spring semester this year.
Some institutions have even further reduced tuition and fees to lure students back amid the pandemic.
Rider University in New Jersey said it will reduce its undergraduate tuition for new students by 22 percent to $35,000 from $45,120, beginning next fall.
Fairleigh Dickinson University announced it will similarly slash tuition for all new students in its New Jersey campuses this upcoming fall semester to $32,000－a 22 to 25 percent discount.
Incoming freshmen at Southern New Hampshire University are having a tuition-free year, and tuition will be lowered to $10,000 to $15,000 per year from this year－about 50 to 60 percent reduction from its current rate.
Enrollments at SNHU spiked 45 percent from Fall 2019 after announcing changes to its tuition rates. The school said the incoming fall first-year class is now the largest in its history by a significant margin.
According to the College Board, average tuition and fees increased by 1.1 percent for in-state students at four-year public colleges and 2.1 percent for students at four-year private institutions in the 2020-21 academic year－the lowest percentage increases in three decades. The board tracks trends in college costs and student aid.
Robert Massa, vice-president emeritus for enrollment at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, told online news site Inside Higher Ed that nonselective institutions with small endowments may need to cut tuition to remain competitive.
"Whether colleges are able to cut tuition will vary depending on their resources and market position," Massa said.
The move to remote education instruction since early last year ignited much heated discussion from students and families about the value of online education. Dozens of online petitions were created by students calling for refunds or tuition discounts for the duration of online instruction.
Several class-action lawsuits were filed against some universities, including Drexel University, University of Miami and Liberty University. The lawsuits claim that online classes do not have equal value to in-person classes, and are not worth the tuition that students pay for on-campus classes.
In its April report, consulting and research firm Art & Science Group found that two-thirds of prospective four-year college students said they expected to pay much less for online instruction.
Oleg Wang, a student at Ohio State University, said his school offers discounted tuition for online sessions, but he is not eligible for it because he enrolled in a mix of online and in-person courses.
"I think if a university had offered online classes before the pandemic, then a full price is acceptable," Wang said. "But if the school moved an in-person class online during the pandemic, then the tuition should be reduced."