Illinois' plan for tuition offers model

If the UNC system likes what it sees, it could mimic a tuition-certainty policy that has maintained costs in the University of Illinois system.

In the guaranteed-tuition plan, Illinois students pay a constant rate of tuition during a four-year undergraduate degree program.

“Giving parents and families a chance to project and plan ahead is the (program’s) benefit,” said Thomas Eakman, executive assistant vice president for academic affairs at UI-Chicago.

The UNC system is still in the early stages of looking into how well a guaranteed-tuition policy would benefit its students, said Jeff Davies, the system’s vice president for finance.

“I like the concept of locking in a tuition rate, but I don’t know what that impact would be on the freshman class,” he said.

The UNC-system Board of Governors is using Illinois’ two-year-old program as a guide.

The board is planning to ask a representative from the system to discuss the pros and cons of the program’s implementation, said BOG member Jim Phillips, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee.

“We’re on a fact-finding mission,” Phillips said, adding that the speaker will visit the board in the next few months.

In 2003, Illinois state lawmakers required public universities to implement the plan by fall 2004.

The state also gave the 12 Illinois campuses the freedom to set their own tuition rates and extend their guaranteed-tuition policies to graduate students.

Illinois legislators said that since different campuses have particular needs, statewide stipulations would do more harm than good.

The premise of the Illinois legislation was that guaranteed tuition saves students money, but many say that’s inaccurate.

“They aren’t getting a financial break; they’re just getting financial security,” Eakman said.

In the first year two years, students with guaranteed tuition pay more than those without.

But during the third year, they pay less.

In the end, the price is virtually the same.

At UIC, in-state students without guaranteed tuition paid $2,645 for fall 2004.

Incoming freshmen with a set tuition rate paid $2,841.

Eakman said it is too early to accurately predict the effects of the plan.

But Andrew Hollingsead, a student member of the UI Board of Trustees, was quick to point out negative effects of the plan.

Since students with guaranteed tuition pay higher rates in their first two years, students who transfer out of the university system never end up receiving the pay break that comes in the last two years.

“If you are only there two years, really, you’re paying more,” Hollingsead said.

He also mentioned the difficulty of projecting future rates of tuition based on the year’s budget situation.

The fiscal needs of a university might change abruptly within four years, he said.

“I have a problem with really requiring the university to project over four years what their fiscal situation is going to be,” Hollingsead said.

For now, the BOG is weighing all the advantages and disadvantages of the program.

“It certainly would be a positive thing to be able to say to students and their parents that you are going to be guaranteed the same tuition during a four-year period,” Phillips said.

“If we could do that, I think people would appreciate it.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.