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The landscape for colleges and universities changes by the day. On May 8, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s data indicated that 74% of colleges planned to offer their courses in-person while only 1.6% said they would be on-line, 5% hybrid and the remaining 20% either hadn’t decided or were considering various alternatives. As the months have progressed, those plans have changed. In May, the Cal State system was one of the first to announce that it would offer all of its classes online. Soon schools began to equivocate about their plans and more and more said that they would be hybrid so that everyone would be able to attend. As time went on, more and more faculty raised objections to teaching in person and argued that they were not consulted about the colleges’ plans. As of July 29th, the Chronicle data shows that only 23.5% of schools plan to offer wholly or primarily in-person classes. In the last week, several schools including The Johns Hopkins University and most of the colleges in Maryland and Pennsylvania have announced that they have changed plans and moved to being entirely or almost entirely on-line as the virus continues to spread.
Students around the country are protesting tuition prices given the changed college experience whether entirely on-line or even at some schools which are planning on operating partially or entirely in-person. Schools which have announced their plans to offer in-person classes this fall have acknowledged that the campus experience will be significantly different from what students have been used to in the past. Social distancing will be enforced at most campuses and most social gatherings of students, faculty and staff will be severely limited. Many schools have cancelled athletics and other extra-curricular activities and dining will be grab’n’go on most campuses.
In response to a survey that I conducted last week on tuition plans for the fall at colleges and universities, 34% of schools have indicated that their fall 2020 tuition will be the same as it was last year while tuition will be higher than last year at 62% of the schools and lower at only 4%. Many of the schools which are reporting flat tuition compared with last fall are a result of decisions to rollback their initially planned tuition increases to last year’s level in response to the current conditions with the virus and the concerns of students over the price.
Tuitions will remain at the fall 2019 level at public institutions in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina. In addition, several private colleges have rolled their tuition back to the fall 2019 level.
The survey revealed that 90% of the schools that are offering both in-person and on-line classes will not differentiate their tuition based on how the courses are taught. Among schools that usually teach in-person but plan to teach online this fall, only 3% have reduced their tuition from what they had originally announced. Some schools have announced reduction or elimination of some fees, especially those related to parking and student activities but many are maintaining both their tuition and fees at their initially announced levels.
Tuition reductions are occurring predominantly at the wealthiest and most selective schools in the country. Williams College announced that it was reducing its tuition by 15% and Princeton, Georgetown and Lafayette announced 10% reductions in tuition. MIT is giving every undergraduate a one-time tuition grant of $5,000 and they are freezing their tuition and the University of the Pacific is giving all new students an additional grant of $1450 which they can keep for all four years. In addition, three historically black colleges, Spelman, Hampton and Paul Quinn have announced tuition reductions. Two schools, Southern New Hampshire and Franciscan in Ohio announced in May they would not charge tuition in the fall for all freshmen while Davidson announced that students can delay paying their fall bill into 2021. Many schools are planning to offer additional financial aid where students needs have changed.
The question remains as to what students will do this fall. Will those whose schools are offering in-person classes attend. There seems to be a desire among many students to return to class but many who commute and live in multi-generational households are very nervous about returning because of the risk of bringing the virus home. Among the great majority of students whose schools will be operating on-line the question is will they go to the original college of their choice; will they choose a less expensive college or will they take the term off. Summer school classes, which were almost entirely on-line, exceeded expectations at most institutions giving an indication that students are growing accustomed to on-line learning and are willing to pursue it. Two schools which are providing incentives to students are Pacific Lutheran which is offering its students a plus year, tuition free to all continuously enrolled undergraduates and St. Norbert’s which is offering its undergraduates a ninth term free.
My projection is that students will continue with their education and the unknown will be whether or not they stick with their first-choice college or transfer to a less expensive institution or an institution closer to their home if they were planning on going many miles away. We will have answers in the next month. We will see whether colleges feel the need to make any further price adjustments; provide additional incentives to students or make more generous financial aid awards in order to keep their students.
