Florida State Schools Considering Flat Rate Tuition
News — By Kevin Wolkenfeld on September 20, 2010 at 5:08 pmA discussion is taking place in the University system’s Board of Governors to decide if full time students should pay a flat rate for tuition, regardless of the credit hours they’re taking.
Under this system, all full time students would pay the same tuition. Students who take less credit hours will pay for more credit hours than they are taking.
If a full time student were to take 12 credits, they could potentially be charged as someone taking 15 credits. Students taking 18 credits would only be charged for 15.
Grant Heston, a UCF spokesman, sent this emailed statement to Knightnews.com: “As reported statewide this weekend, the Florida Board of Governors may give state universities the option to charge students a flat, or “block,” tuition rate no matter how many classes they take. At this time, UCF has no plans to adopt block tuition should the proposal be approved by the Board of Governors”.
Knightnews.com asked Heston if UCF would be under pressure to adopt it down the road in order to stay competitive with other state schools that do.
Heston responded, “We believe our decision not to adopt block tuition at this time is in the best interests of UCF.”
We also asked if UCF opposes the passage of the plan.
“UCF has no plans to adopt block tuition at this time, should the proposal be approved by the Board of Governors. We do not oppose the proposal, as it offers universities the option of using block tuition. Each institution is free to make its own decision on how best to proceed,” Heston responded.
Supporters say the plan will encourage students to graduate on time, while critics say it’s just another unfair tuition hike being forced on students who take 12 hours while working jobs part-time.
A decision may be made as early as November when the Board of Governors meets at the University of Florida. Knightnews.com will follow this story, check for updates.
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2 Comments
It seems like UCF came up with this idea a few years ago. It got killed. Now, they are pretending they’re not in support of it because they don’t want students campaigning against it. They’re in support of it. The came up with it!
Check out this link:
http://www.unf.edu/TwoWings.aspx?dept=11049&lmenu=181&lmenu2=15032385757&id=15032396386&ekfxmen_noscript=1&ekfxmensel=ea2087ade_15032385757_15032385765
“The model UNF administration had proposed he referred to as a pure response, which was based on the goal of block tuition to speed up graduation by encouraging students to take an extra class. The University proposal encouraged students to take an extra class by essentially offering them a free class or so after a certain amount of credits. One proposal by UCF had the potential of adding revenue to the institution’s coffers by penalizing the students for not taking an additional class. Students who took 12, 13, or 14 credits would pay for 15 credits. President Delaney said it appeared that UF and FSU would adopt proposals similar to that of UCF.”
Glad to see UCF at least doesn’t plan on using it. I oppose this, I think it’s totally outrageous, but if Universities have the option to not do it, it could be a strong leveraging point. It seems like UF, however, is pushing for it.