Proposal: Different Tuition Rates Based on the Degree Students Seek

October 24, 2012 | 12:21 PM

By Sarah Gonzalez

Sarah Gonzalez / StateImpact Florida

Students protesting tuition hikes in Tallahassee, Fla. during the 2012 legislative session.

Gov. Rick Scott’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on State Higher Education Reform has reached tentative agreement on its recommendations.

The panel on Wednesday called for different tuition rates based on the type of degree being sought such as business, education or engineering.

It also proposed letting “preeminent universities” set higher tuition rates.

In addition, the task force suggests the Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System, should have bigger roles in budgeting and hiring university presidents.

It backed away, though, from a proposal that would have set a goal of reaching the national average for state university funding. Florida now ranks near the bottom.

The seven-member panel plans to finalize its recommendations to Scott and the Legislature next week.

Editor’s note: This post was written by the Associated Press.

Let us know what you think about the proposal:

Would setting lower tuition rates for degrees in science, technology, engineering and math encourage Florida students to major in STEM fields?
Or would the state set higher tuition for those degrees since they tend to be well paid jobs?
Where should the cost of a degree in education fall?

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Jose

Students already go into debt despite the low return on investment of some majors. Charging more to those students will not solve the problem; it will just lead to higher student debt for those without a good paying job waiting for them. This is a frontal cortex maturation and impulsivity problem—it should not be reduced to solely a personal responsibility thing.

A better solution would be to creative incentive funds for schools that succeed in matching graduates into their first choice careers/tracks post-college graduation. Students would need to be mentored continuously (3x per semester) so that their choice in a major and going forward reflects a truly deliberate and realistic decision. Then, set up a grading scheme that takes this metric into account and sets caps to state funds based on this metric. This would actually create some accountability, which schools are currently lacking.
- Sarah StateImpact
  
  Thanks for your comment, Jose. We appreciate you sharing your ideas with us.
Royce

if there are degree fields that we know as a nation we are lacking maybe there should be some incentive provided to go into those fields. If not something like this then what? we know we are losing in these areas (STEM) and they are only going to grow in importance as time goes on. These seems like it could be a good idea. But if not this, we need to do something.

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