Indiana University officials say they are still not sure how a new financial award for undergraduate students on track to graduate in four years will be calculated for a number of student groups. The award may not be very substantial compared with other university tuition freezes.
The award is not need or merit based, but students need approximately 60 credits completed for consideration and cannot be on academic probation. That poses questions about the eligibility of transfer students, incoming seniors, and undergraduates who change their major.
IU spokesperson Mark Land says eligibility for students who make a degree change is still to be discussed.
"There would be cases where somebody may have the raw number of credits but they are still going to need 80 to graduate because they switched majors," he says. "In that situation, the chances are they would not be eligible."
Land says the award will not extend to studies beyond a student's fourth year. Any later study will be charged at the current tuition rate. Land says half of undergraduates graduate in four years. School leaders would like to see two-thirds of students receive diplomas in that time frame.
Here is the breakdown. Students will be eligible if they:
Are an undergraduate
Have completed 60 credits
Are on track to graduate in 4 years
Are not on academic probation
The cases still to be decided are:
Transfer students
Incoming seniors
Undergraduates who have changed their major
Other University Tuition Freezes
The University of Evansville also instituted a price freeze. President Tom Kazee says his school's program, nicknamed, "The Big Freeze", will lock in the net price of a student's education for all four years of their undergraduate experience.
"A family that comes to UE and has a particular net price, they are going to pay that for four years," he says. "And if you compare that to what they would have paid in the old model where we would be increasing by 4 percent to 5 percent every year, there is a substantial financial impact. It's real savings."
Tuition at IU has increased 3.5 percent each year for the past two years. The new financial award would cover this increase, making its value about $1,500.
