UNT announces tuition task force, seeks to create guaranteed tuition rates

With the goal of making UNT the first Texas public university that gives its students a firm commitment on the cost of college, UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson is creating a task force on tuition to study new options under the state's deregulated tuition law.

The task force would study various guaranteed tuition policies that could give UNT's continuing students the opportunity to graduate without any change in tuition cost or with predetermined limits.

Among the models to be studied is a proposal to freeze tuition rates for returning full-time UNT students who have completed at least 60 hours of UNT degree-related course work. The rates would be frozen for a period of time, probably two years or 75 additional semester credit hours, if the student maintained continuous enrollment.

Other options to be examined include annual percentage caps, two- and three-year rate-setting schedules, and even the option of a fixed tuition rate for all students from the start of their UNT education.

"Our students deserve to know what the cost of their higher education will be for the duration of their college career if we can responsibly offer this commitment without damage to the university's financial operations," Jackson says. "The new Texas deregulated tuition law may produce a greater variety of costs and quality among various Texas universities, and UNT wants to explore new territory by responsibly developing new options in tuition structure.

"We have begun to examine financial models of the impacts of these various plans, and it is clear to me that more discussion will be healthy before we attempt to set a permanent policy," Jackson says.

Private and some public universities in other states have used variations on the guaranteed tuition plan, and the state of Illinois recently adopted legislation that will require each institution to guarantee tuition rates to all students from their initial time of enrollment.

Jackson plans to present a policy recommended by the task force to the UNT Board of Regents prior to its February 2004 quarterly meeting to guide any future changes in the rate of UNT tuition.

Already, UNT administrators are examining a variety of options to build in such a commitment, including a fixed rate for all students from first enrollment, a plan with annual increase limitations and other combinations.

The task force, which will include students, faculty, administrators and alumni, will discuss the fairness and financial impact of a wide variety of options. Jackson says all tuition model options explored will consider the varying impacts on UNT's financial aid resources, UNT's competitiveness with other institutions including community colleges, and cost shifting between lower-division, upper-division and graduate students.

The task force will also look at new opportunities provided by the law that allow varying tuition for different courses and degree plans and for courses taught on different days and at different times of day or in different locations.

Creation of the task force comes simultaneously with the UNT System Board of Regent's approval of a tuition increase of $7-per-semester-credit-hour beginning in Spring 2004.

"In asking for this new tuition rate, I am very aware of the increased responsibility that UNT assumes," Jackson says. "It is important for UNT to balance our educational investment needs with our tuition revenue and find new ways to offer our students and their families as much certainty as possible in planning a college education."

BY KELLEY REESE kreese@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Regents approve 2004 budget, 2 percent raise pool for faculty, staff
• UNT to petition Texas Education Agency for virtual charter school authority
• UNT offices moving to, from and within the Hurley Administration Building
• UNT Observatory to provide up-close view of Mars
• New Fouts Field scoreboard, videoboard to be finished in time for first home game
• Agreement links UNT, Ukranian university
• Faculty members honored at annual convocation
• Dance, theatre arts tickets on sale soon

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