The new tuition rate will reduce costs for students in seven colleges.
Texas Tech University presented a new tuition model for Fall 2016 to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents on Thursday (Dec. 10), which was approved by the Finance & Administrative Committee and received full board approval on Friday.
Differential tuition is a model that relates the tuition rate to the cost of delivery of instruction based on the college providing the course. As part of the change, all academic department instructional assessment (ADIA) fees will be eliminated and three mandatory student fees – Library Fee, Information Technology Fee and Financial & Record Services Fee – are being reduced. The application of this model in Fall 2016 will result in lower costs for students enrolled in courses in seven of Texas Tech's 10 colleges.
“Educational quality is essential and creating a balance between that quality and the costs associated is important,” Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis said. “Differential tuition will provide our colleges the opportunity to enhance resources and facilities associated with their respective programs, including the hiring of additional faculty in some cases.”
The differential tuition model at Texas Tech differs from differential tuition models implemented at other institutions. Rather than assessing a tuition rate based on a student's major, differential tuition rates will be applied to undergraduate and graduate courses based on the college where the course is taught.
One component of differential tuition is allowing certain colleges –Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering and Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration – to implement supplemental differential tuition rates, which will only be applied to undergraduate courses. Funds generated from these rates will allow the colleges to hire faculty to reduce the student-to-faculty ratio and, ultimately, class sizes. Current students enrolled at Texas Tech prior to Fall 2016 will receive a 50 percent discount on supplemental differential tuition for undergraduate business and engineering courses through Summer 2017.
“Differential tuition will provide greater transparency of tuition and fee costs,” Texas Tech Provost Lawrence Schovanec said. “This new model will also enable us to increase the number of instructors of record in all colleges, and with the supplemental tuition rates in the Whitacre College of Engineering and the Rawls College of Business Administration we will improve the student-to-faculty ratios that are important factors in the accreditation of these colleges.”
Under differential tuition, the amount of tuition and fees will vary depending upon the courses taken by each student. While most students will see a decrease in overall tuition and fees for fiscal year 2017, the overall increase in tuition and fees, including supplemental tuition, is 1.1 percent.