The University of Texas of the Permian Basin
Tuition and Fee Proposal for 2006-2008
December 1, 2005
Summary of tuition process used on campus
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin Tuition Advisory Committee was charged with considering the need for a tuition increase, effective for Fall 2006 and Fall 2007. The Committee found an increase was needed to maintain and improve the quality of education at U.T. Permian Basin. The Committee was comprised of 8 studentrepresentatives including four from the Student Senate, two representatives from the Faculty Senate, two representatives from the Staff Advisory Council, and two community representatives. The Vice President for Student Services chaired the Tuition Advisory Committee.
The Committee met 5 times beginning October 25, 2005. The Committee examined a number of factors:
- Increases in Tuition and Fees over the past three years and how they were used
- Tuition and Fees at other universities in the region and in the state
- IPEDS and other data related to the University’s affordability and the financial burden carried by UTPB students
- A UT System Strategic Issues Facing Higher Education Summary
- The funding priorities for the university, determined by the new bottoms-up Budget Hearing Process which asked budget units to identify resources needed to advance the goals in the University’s Compact with UT System
- The burden of tuition and fees on students as reported by students to members of the committee
- A review of the UTPB Cash for College tuition rebate program.
The Committee reviewed the current budget situation, faculty and staff salaries, increases in faculty and support staff, program development and the effect of tuition increases on students’ financial aid. Two major issues for the University tuition increase are Quality and Access -- Quality as measured by professional accreditation of programs and Access as measured by perceived and actual affordability.
After considerable deliberation the Committee recommended:
1. A total tuition and mandatory fee increase not to exceed $15 per semester credit hour for the Fall 2006 semester including a $3.40 Energy Fee
2. An additional increase not to exceed $15 per semester credit hour for the Fall 2007 semester. The Committee acknowledged that the required 20% of any increase in designated tuition would be set aside for financial aid. The $15 increase is a 10.85% increase across all required tuition and fees for a 15 credit hour full time student in the first year and an additional 9.79% increase in the second year.
3. The University explore increasing scholarships and other financial support for graduate students.
Two open meetings were conducted by the President on campus on November 16 and 17, 2005 at 2:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. respectively, to provide for wide student participation. Posters, television announcements, and email were used to publicize the hearings. Meeting participants included students, faculty, staff, and members of the community and television/press.
The Executive Council was present at each meeting and took the information gained from these meetings under advisement. After the public meetings, the Executive Council recommended an Energy Fee in the amount of $3.40 per SCH, a $9.00 per SCH designated tuition increase effective for Fall 2006 and an $11.00 per SCH designated tuition increase effective for Fall 2007.
Cost Savings Efforts to Keep Tuition and Fee Charges Affordable
The University has undertaken various cost savings efforts to keep tuition and fee charges affordable in recent years. The single most significant efforts have been energy conservation programs including a targeted renovation program to improve the energy efficiency of the University’s central plant and participation in a consortium of University of Texas campuses for group purchasing of electricity.
Other programs have included Vice Presidential review of all travel before its final approval to insure all travel is necessary, thorough examination of each vacant position before an authorization to refill a vacancy is approved, and creation of new faculty and staff positions targeted directly on meeting the enrollment growth needs of the University. The University has also created a satellite teaching site at Midland College, approximately 20 miles to the East to enable students to reduce their personal expense of traveling to the central campus. A similar teaching site is planned for the Andrews Business and Technology Center in Andrews, Texas, approximately 35 miles to the North. The University is also the second largest participant in Distance Education through the UT TeleCampus, making its education programs available to students without requiring their personal travel.
During a period of rapid growth, which saw UT Permian Basin’s enrollments increase by 50% in five years, the University has worked to keep staffing as lean as it could. During this time the faculty FTE has increased by 43% and non-faculty staff positions have increased by 14%. The administrative cost ratio was 12.30% in FY 01 and was 10.00% in the last fiscal year.
Tuition Increase Limited to the Amounts Necessary to Provide a Quality Education
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin carefully and routinely focuses its tuition increases on improving the quality of education provided to our students. Recent initiatives that emphasize the continuing development of quality include various programs to obtain specialized accreditations for the University programs in Business, Education and Art. These programs serve approximately 55% of the University’s student body either as their degree programs or as certification fields for teaching certifications. The University anticipates that all three of these programs will either receive specialized accreditations during the two year tuition period or will achieve them shortly
thereafter. Various investments in faculty, staffing, program assessment and the demonstration of institutional effectiveness are required to achieve these accreditation goals.
Another priority for the tuition increase is hiring and retaining competitive faculty and staff in current positions. The University historically has been 8% or more below comparable campuses in its salary structure. As we have focused more emphatically on growing our enrollment and on achieving external indicators of quality, the need to maintain and improve the University’s salary structure has become more acute. The tuition increase will enable the University to continue to achieve parity with other campuses and insure that faculty and staff recruitment and retention receives comparable weight to student recruitment and retention. A quality faculty and staff are essential to University goals.
Increased staffing in student support areas is also important to deal with the growth in enrollment in recent years. Additional Student Services, University Police, and Physical Plant staffing are directly related to student enrollment and needed to maintain quality programs and environments that enhance University graduation goals and the secure campus environment that students reasonably expect.
Tuition and Fee Predictability
The University is equally concerned with parents and students about the cost of a university education and agrees that every effort to insure predictability is very important. The challenge facing the University is that of continuing rapid growth and the resultant need to provide additional academic services, staffing, and related support services – the cost of which cannot be predicted well in advance. This two year tuition proposal is a step in the direction of more predictability. It insures that tuition and mandatory fees will be known for the next two years. The University will continue to look at other alternatives to improve tuition predictability.
Tuition and Fee Policies Relation To and Support of Other Strategic Goals
The University has two specific goals related to the tuition and fee policy including growth in enrollment, programs, and student services and enhanced quality of the programs offered. Growth in enrollment enables the University to offer more classes and to better serve the students of the region and all of Texas. Growth in programs enables the University to strategically add programs that better meet the needs of students and the community. Growth in student support services enables the University to better serve the students who come to the University through programs that help them succeed and to graduate with their degrees in a reasonable time.
The growth goals are directly tied to the University’s quality goals. These quality goals include seeking specialized program accreditations for programs such as Business, Education, Art, and others. The purpose of these specialized accreditations is to affirm publicly that the University’s programs in these specialized, accreditation areas meet national standards of quality for the educational programs. They provide an external seal of approval for the programs.
Tuition revenues provide support for these programs by helping the University fund additional activities that are required by both the entire University’s SACS accreditation as well as the specialized accreditations. Part of the first year tuition increase in 2006-2007 will improve the University’s institutional effectiveness and assessment programs. Additional tuition increase funds will be used to support the NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) accreditation by providing upgrades from Lecturer to full time faculty positions and by providing better staff support for Education student field experience programs. Smaller amounts of the tuition increase revenues will provide for on-campus student worker wage adjustments and similar retention and student support programs. Finally tuition revenues will enable the University to fund compensation adjustments for faculty and staff.
The overriding goal of the University’s tuition increase programs is to improve student retention and graduation rates. The Cash for College program begun two years ago is funded with tuition revenues and provides a $400 senior year credit for each prior year in which a student completes 30 credits between September and August. This program provides students incentives for completing higher credit loads each year as well as a reward in their senior year when other non-need based financial aid programs may be minimal. From Spring 2004 through Summer 2005, 250 UTPB students have benefited from Cash for College, earning over $102,000 in tuition rebates. Cash for College directly rewards the full-time four year college student for coming to and staying at UTPB.
Overview of Financial Aid Services Available to Assist Students
The University has committed to additional staffing in the Financial Aid Office from existing campus and grant resources to provide better services to students. The financial aid set asides required by the tuition increase will be used to fund the existing and growing Cash for College program as well as expanding other financial aid programs that maintain and enhance access.
The University has emphasized increasing scholarship and financial aid to reduce the impact of tuition increases for those students least able to pay. In FY 04 the University allocated 25% of the designated tuition, rather than the statutorily required 20% increase to financial aid. Scholarships were targeted so that students on PELL Grants would see no increase in out-of-pocket expenses due to the increase in tuition. External fund raising has placed a high goal on scholarships. In the last two years $62,033, a 9% increase in the external scholarships, have been raised.
The Tuition Advisory Committee led by representatives from the Student Senate has recommended that the University increase the number of scholarships available for graduate students. In response to this recommendation, an increase in graduate scholarships may be allocated for next year.
The amount of financial assistance excluding loans has kept pace with the tuition increases over the past three years. Tuition has increased an average of 10.5% over the past three years and total gift aid has increased an average of 14.2%. Approximately 75% of UTPB students receive some form of gift aid. Gift aid covers approximately 80% of the student’s tuition and fees. The other 20% is comprised of a combination of loans and other external assistance. UTPB’s “We’ve Got You Covered” program is an added cost saver for students receiving a Pell Grant. The
University covers the tuition increase for students who meet the established criteria. The University is proactive in providing scholarship opportunities for students wanting to enroll. The Office of Admissions awards scholarships to students in the top 10%, top 25%, and top 50% of the student’s high school class.
Summary
The University has carefully considered the effect of this proposed tuition and fee increase on the access, quality, and academic excellence of the University. The Tuition Advisory Committee carefully reviewed data on prior uses of tuition increases and on the University’s needs for the next two years. The campus hearings on the Tuition Advisory Committee’s recommendations provided an opportunity for the broader campus community to offer input. The proposal reflects the University’s needs for tuition revenue funding in the next two years at a level designed to improve Quality and encourage and maintain Access.
The Table below reflects the current and proposed tuition and mandatory fee levels.
| Per Semester Credit Hour | Current Rates | Proposed Rates Fall 2006 |
Proposed Rates Fall 2007 |
| Statutory Tuition | $50.00 | $50.00 | $50.00 |
| Designated Tuition | $59.00 | 68.00 | 79.00 |
| Per Credit Mandatory Fees | |||
| Student Service Fee | 10.50 | 10.50 | 10.50 |
| Athletics Fee | 7.00 | 7.00 | 7.00 |
| Library Fee | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Technology Fee | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Energy Fee | 0.00 | 3.40 | 3.40 |
| Per Student Mandatory Fees | |||
| Student Union Fee | 35.00 | 35.00 | 35.00 |
| Medical Services Fee | 11.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 |
| Advising | 10.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
|
Total |
$190.50 | $202.90 | $213.90 |
| Per 15 Semester Credit Hours | Current Rates | Fall 2006 | Fall 2007 |
|
Total |
$2,073.50 | $2,259.50 | $2,424.50 |
| Percentage Increase for 15 Credits | 8.97% | 7.30% |
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