Grad tuition to rise in SBA

The School of Business Administration could be increasing the cost of tuition for its graduate students by as much as 9 percent next year, in response to the low budget figures proposed by Oregon’s Ways and Means co-chairs.

Official figures are not currently available, but Mary Taylor, associate dean of the SBA’s academic affairs, said that she expects the increase “to be substantial.” PSU Budget Director Michael Fung estimates that the cost per credit hour for in-state resident students in the Graduate School of Business would increase by about $301 per term at 12 credits.

This would increase tuition to $3,612 per term, up by 9.02 percent from $3,282.50 per term this year.

Bill Feyerherm, vice provost for research and graduate studies at PSU, said that the final tuition rates for next year are still in deliberation. He said that the increase will not affect tuition costs for graduate business students enrolled during the 2007 summer session, and that the final rates will be made available as soon as the Oregon University System (OUS) finishes preparing next year’s budget.

The budget is expected to be finalized by June 30, 2007, the last day of the OUS fiscal year.

Scott Dawson, dean of the School of Business Administration (SBA), said that the increase will not exceed 15 percent once the rates are finalized. He said that the SBA is interested in expanding to a second building in the near future and that he hopes this year’s tuition increase is the largest change the SBA must institute during the next several years.

“This increase is hopefully the last of its kind for a while,” Dawson said. “I’m opposed to doing this at the undergraduate level. The graduate group is just the most practical place for an increase, because the demand and the labor market for business students won’t go away, increase or otherwise.”

Taylor said that the percent change for both resident and nonresident graduate students will be even and that resident students will continue to pay a lower cost. Feyerherm said that he doesn’t know of any specific plans that the Graduate School of Business has for the extra revenue that graduate students will pay in tuition next year.

Feyerherm said that he expects the SBA to use the extra funds to “assure low class sizes, hire top-quality instructors and maintain the competitive state of PSU’s business program.”

“Every department right now is strapped for cash,” Feyerherm said. “It’s good that the School of Business Administration is doing something to plan long term.”

The increase in tuition must remain competitive with other universities in the state that are developing their own business programs, Feyerherm said. Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management is currently PSU’s main competition among Oregon’s business schools, according to Feyerherm and Dawson.

The University of Oregon’s business program is one of the SBA’s top competitors, Feyerherm said. He said that PSU’s graduate business students will still be paying less overall than UO business graduates, regardless of the pending tuition increases.

“From the vantage point of tuition increase,” Feyerherm said, “PSU is becoming higher than cost of living, but net impact puts us below cost of education across the state.”

Taylor said that she and other members of the SBA faculty will meet with returning and prospective graduate students during the next few weeks to explain the changing tuition rates. While she accepts that the differential tuition increase is necessary, Taylor said she is still hoping that the Ways and Means committee revises their budget for the next biennium to include more funding for higher education.

“We’ve been working for the last several years to increase the quality of PSU’s business programs,” Taylor said. “The state, however, seems to view higher education as a lesser priority with each passing year.”

The change in tuition for graduate business students will be submitted as a differential increase in Portland State’s budget proposal to the Oregon University System. This means that the higher costs won’t affect all graduate students, and that the extra revenue generated by the increase will only be used within the School of Business Administration.