San Diego Union-Tribune: UC Cashing in with out-of-state tuition

UC cashing in with out-of-state tuition

By Pat Flynn 6:37 p.m., July 7, 2011

The San Diego Union-Tribune

The University of California’s initiative to recruit nonresident students – specifically to capture their higher tuition – is paying off.

Recently released figures show the system’s nine undergraduate campuses expect out-of-state and international students to make up 12.3 percent of this fall’s freshman class, a sharp increase from 2010, when 8 percent of freshmen were nonresidents.

The University of California San Diego is the third most attractive campus to nonresidents. Figures released by UC’s Oakland headquarters indicate that 18.2 percent of the students in UCSD’s fall freshman class are expected to come from outside California, up from 9.3 percent in 2010. Only Berkeley, at 29.8 percent, and UCLA, at 18.3 percent, expect to have a larger percentage of nonresident freshman.

With California’s new budget calling for a $650 million cut in state funding for the UC system, officials are scrambling to find new revenue.

“Our concern is that this disinvestment of public funding is really critical,” said Mae Brown, an assistant vice chancellor and director of admissions at UCSD. “We’re greatly concerned about the budget. Our goal is to maintain the outstanding quality of UCSD so, yes, the out-of-state students bring tremendous value – in terms of diversity and, yes, in financial value.”

The average UC tuition for California residents is $12,000 annually. For nonresidents, it is $35,000. A rough calculation indicates the added nonresident freshmen expected this fall will pay $43 million above what in-state enrollees would have paid in their place.

The idea of increasing the number of nonresident students was proposed by the system’s Commission on the Future and formally endorsed by the Board of Regents.

To reach more nonresidents, Brown said, UCSD revamped its website – including adding messages from foreign students to prospective applicants in their native languages – and turned to social media.
Some critics worry that the initiative to admit more nonresident students could come at the expense of California residents.

“In these times of budget difficulties, the UC must not lose sight of its primary mission of providing accessible, high-quality education to a broad representation of students in the state ...,” said Andrea Guerrero, executive director of the Equality Alliance of San Diego County. “Any plans to admit more out-of-state students to earn more revenue must not sidestep the primary obligation of the university to California students.”

UC officials insist that boosting out-of-state enrollment does not harm resident applicants. In-state freshman enrollment is expected to remain about even with last year at just over 35,000 across the system.

“The UC campuses have the capacity to enroll as many California students as they have funding for,” said Pam Burnett, interim director of undergraduate admissions for the UC system.

“The campuses have more capacity than that. Unfortunately, there just isn’t the funding. Realizing that there is capacity for enrolling more students, the campuses admitted nonresident students who were at least as well qualified as California applicants.”

The extra tuition these students pay, Burnett said, allow campuses to maintain or add course sections and faculty positions that otherwise would be cut for budgetary reasons.

“That is a benefit to all students,” Burnett said.

She noted that the regents have capped overall nonresident enrollment at 10 percent, well below the approximately 30 percent found at some other prominent public universities, such as Michigan and Virginia.

“I don’t carry water for the upper administration,” said Wayne Cornelius, co-director of the UC Global Health Institute and a professor at UCSD, “but on this we are all struggling mightily to preserve academic programs. We need every bit of funding we can get to maintain the quality of education for all of our students.”