How common is differential tuition?

[Pegasus]

The university DD is transferring to charges extra tuition for every credit hour taken in business, engineering, and nursing. I found an article from years ago when they were first considering this and a head administrator was justifying it as follows:

 

“...graduates in business, engineering and nursing are among the most employable college graduates in the state; these areas are where there are jobs – well-paying jobs...â€

 

I got a bit annoyed recently as DD was looking at the courses she wanted to take next semester.  One is a required probability and statistics course.  However, they've created a special course within the college of engineering so that the additional fee applies.

[Serenade]

That would annoy me, too. I don't think certain courses should be revenue sources to support other courses.

[kiana]

These classes are also in general much more expensive to run. Qualified instructors in these areas (business, engineering, and nursing) have many well-paid career options other than the university and so higher salaries are required to attract them. Furthermore, lab classes in engineering and practical classes in nursing have limitations on how many students can be accommodated, so you can't just stick 500 students in a lecture hall for them and call it good. 

 

It's very irritating to pay but there are actual reasons other than "soak the ones who can pay"

[regentrude]

At my institution, the tuition is the same for all credits, but there are extra class fees for classes that are more expensive to teach. It is more expensive to hire faculty capable of teaching certain disciplines than others, and it is more expensive to teach a class that requires technology or labs compared to one that just needs books.

Phrasing this in terms of future earning potential sounds wrong to me, but phrasing it in terms of actual cost of instruction does make a lot of sense.

[Bootsie]

I don't know what percentage of schools is charging differential tuition, but it is fairly common.  Some schools that do not charge differential tuition have other program fees, lab fees, or computer fees that make taking certain classes more expensive than other classes.  

[katilac]

I've seen it quite a bit, very common I'd say. 

 

He gave a stupid justification for it, though. 

[MysteryJen]

I think it is very common, though usually in the form of additional fees, rather than tuition.

[Crimson Wife]

It seems to be pretty common at public universities. The one I'm at now has a differential tuition fee that varies by college within the university. I'm glad that Communicative Disorders is within the college of education because that has one of the lowest differential tuition rates at the university.

[bettyandbob]

My university was doing this in the early 80s. So, it's been around for a while. 

[Bootsie]

It is very much like paying a different per hour tuition rate for an MBA class or law class than for an undergraduate class.  Differential tuition even occurs for the same class taken in a different program.  For example, the tuition for a managerial economics course can vary at a university depending on whether the course is taken as part of the full-time MBA program or as part of the professional MBA program.

[MerryAtHope]

At my institution, the tuition is the same for all credits, but there are extra class fees for classes that are more expensive to teach. It is more expensive to hire faculty capable of teaching certain disciplines than others, and it is more expensive to teach a class that requires technology or labs compared to one that just needs books.

Phrasing this in terms of future earning potential sounds wrong to me, but phrasing it in terms of actual cost of instruction does make a lot of sense.

 

I was thinking the same thing. My dd is going into nursing; I should see if those classes are more expensive here. This weekend she and I went to a demonstration of their simulation manikins (they talk, they breathe, you can hear a heart rate and bowel sounds, take a pulse, administer an IV, practice intubation and all kinds of other procedures like a pneumothorax puncture--one of the manikins even "gives birth." We didn't get to see that demo!), and that made me think--all that technology has to be expensive, plus having that many RN's on staff--it's got to all add up. 

[MarkT]

University of AZ charges differential tuition