A University of Colorado professor has a pitch that he thinks could help solve the university’s budget woes: Charge a flat tuition rate for in-state and out-of-state students.
Environmental-studies professor Roger Pielke Jr. suggested the idea in a commentary published by the Chronicle of Higher Education last month.
CU officials say it’s an interesting idea, but they’re not entertaining it.
At CU’s Boulder campus, tuition this school year for in-state students in the College of Arts and Sciences is $7,672. CU guarantees a four-year, locked tuition rate for out-of-state students, and the annual rate for incoming nonresidents is $28,850.
Pielke suggests CU could charge a universal $14,000 rate and still bring in the same amount of tuition revenue. He said the move would make CU competitive nationally and internationally and improve the quality of the student body by increasing the size of the applicant pool.
