July 09, 1998
TUITION FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION CLASSES COULD BE REDUCED
Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu
The State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors today gave the presidents of the 14 state-owned universities the authority to reduce tuition charged for some classes offered through what is known as distance education.
Distance education involves any course in which the students and instructor are not in the same location when the instruction is being delivered. In the past, it has involved primarily the use of cable television, videotape or correspondence courses.
An increasing number of classes now are being offered via satellite or over the Internet. The Internet is becoming an especially popular method for delivering college courses long distance, mainly to adult learners who may live far from a campus and who may want to take only one or two courses at a time.
The new board policy will allow some of those courses to be offered at a lower cost to students, based on market demand for the classes and the actual cost of delivering them. Reduced tuition rates could take effect as early as this fall.
Students enrolled in distance education courses at any of the 14 state-owned universities currently pay the same per-credit tuition rate as students who take classes on campus. For Pennsylvania residents, that cost is $144 per credit for undergraduate courses and $193 per credit for graduate courses. Nonresidents pay $368 per credit for undergraduate classes and $346 a credit for graduate classes.
Under the new policy, the nonresident, undergraduate tuition rate initially could be reduced to as little as $147 a credit for some courses. The policy allows the nonresident tuition rate to be set anywhere between 102 percent and 250 percent of the resident rate. The university presidents will have the discretion to set the nonresident tuition rate on a course-by-course or program-by-program basis.
The presidents also may propose to the Chancellor reduced tuition rates for resident students for specific courses or programs. In each case, the Chancellor will have the authority to approve the new rate.
System officials are hopeful the new distance education tuition policy will help make the pricing of distance education courses offered by System universities more competitive with rates charged by other institutions. While only a handful of courses are offered through distance education by System universities now, the number is expected to increase significantly in the future.
“As the opportunities for distance education continue to expand, we want our institutions to be able to successfully compete for students,” said Chancellor James H. McCormick. “We will seek to develop appropriate, quality courses that can be offered at affordable prices.”
Proposed courses to be offered by System universities via distance education and the rates to be charged for them eventually will be posted on the Center for Distance Education’s website, which should be up and running by sometime in August. The website will be accessible through the State System’s home page at: www.sshechan.edu.
The home page already includes links to each of the System universities and to ApplyWeb, a new online application process that enables anyone to apply electronically to any of the institutions.
The State System of Higher Education comprises 14 universities throughout the Commonwealth, and is the largest provider of higher education in the state. One of every 29 Pennsylvanians is attending or is a graduate of a System university. The State System is the 17th largest employer in the state, with more than 11,700 employees.
The 14 state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers.