Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

More Tuition Increases Recommended at UVa

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by

James A. Bacon
in

From the Daily Progress:

Applicants for the University of Virginia’s Class of 2023 may face sticker shock when applying to their programs. The university’s Board of Visitors Finance Committee approved tuition increases on Friday between 2.5 and 17.5 percent for incoming undergraduates.

It’s the third year in a row that increases for returning undergraduates remained below inflation, but administrators say increases are needed in some academic colleges to pay for high costs of instruction.

Annual increases in the schools of architecture, nursing, engineering and applied sciences, public policy and commerce range from $1,436 to $2,962.

The article did not provide an average tuition increase for the university as a whole.

Bacon’s bottom line: It makes sense to charge different tuition & fees for different schools and programs. After all, the educational products are very different. Costs vary widely from school to school, and so does competition, demand, and value provided. At the same time, this approach obscures the overall thrust of tuition policy. Is UVa moderating its tuition hikes, or is it delivering another round of overall increases. Did the UVa administration fail to provide an overall figure, or did the Daily Progress reporter fail to report it?

Update: A UVa Today article answers the main question I was asking: “Overall, the proposed weighted average tuition increase for all in-state UVA students is 3.3 percent, and the proposed weighted average for non-Virginians is 3.9 percent.”

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5 responses to “More Tuition Increases Recommended at UVa”

  1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
    Reed Fawell 3rd

    Perhaps the comment made to recent Adjunct Faculty post has even more pertinence to this latest post on yet more UVa. Tuition increases.

    “While I respect Professor Wright,I must disagree with his premises.

    For example:

    “Those with tenure do research, and need to be paid according to the market system that rewards research.”

    No, there is no legitimate market system at work here. This system is rigged. It has little to do with risk v. productivity = reward system at work in a free, open, and legitimate market.

    No, the market system here is broken. Tenure and peer review as operated today is precisely the opposite of a free and open market. Here under the current system Privilege rules worth and productively as this corrupted market is funded by taxpayer and student dollars irrespective of production and/or education. What is at work here is a basic fraud. One that destroys the primary mission of institutions of higher learning which is to teach the students placed in their trust.

    Professors, do your research on your own time, not in the disguise of teaching to get money from students and taxpayers. Do not force students and their parents to pay for your research under the false claim that you are teaching your students, because the vast majority of you are not fulfilling your end of the bargain, and being truthful about it.

    “Those without tenure are paid piecemeal per class, and are perhaps like sweatshop workers in a Bangladeshi garment factory … Milton Friedman’s mother worked in a sweatshop garment factory in New York, and he credits her job with his future success. So, it could be a stepping stone to something better …”

    Oh please, really. Tell that to the man or women working in the sweatshop, that he does it to support the tenured professor in his Ivory Tower. “Let them eat cake,” she said. And we know what happened to Queen Marie Antoinette.”

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Not sure how we do basic research if not at Universities…

    not talking about R&D which should and is properly done by the private sector.

    Basic research is following a lot of rabbit holes to find the very few that actually might result in something useful. The risk of “failure” is high and “rewards” are few and far between…. someone can spend their entire career doing Cancer research for example.. make progress… but it does not get to the point where the market rewards it – yet you’d never had made progress if that researcher had not dedicated themselves to that effort.

    It’s not something that the private sector can reliably fund and even then if they fund something.. that does pan out… the consider that to be their intellectual property – very short term thinking.

    The best patents in my view are the ones the govt funds and then owns and the benefit goes directly to people without some private sector company making huge profits at the expense to only those than can afford it.

    it’s a legitimate conundrum but the private sector is basically not going to fund long term efforts with a lot of failure .. and the pay off maybe decades away.

    That seems to me to be a proper role of government and government basically accomplishes that through higher ed research… as well as a small number of dedicated govt labs that deal with things that are classified.

  3. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    Agree with that last. It IS a “proper role of government.” Although the dividing line between basic research and private sector r&d can get very fuzzy and even arbitrary, at least the polarities are evident, to all but our current leadership.

  4. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    “The current inflation rate for the United States is 2.0% for the 12 months ended October 2017, as published on November 15, 2017 by the U.S. Labor Department.”

    Tuition increases running more than half again higher than inflation.

    Amazon: Stay away from Virginia. Do not torture your employees by subjecting them to the incompetence and idiocy of Virginia’s state and local governments. Choose any other state. Do not consider Virginia and further.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I’ll say this. As long as people are willing to pay whatever the prices are at UVA… there is no reason to keep them lower… no self-respecting businesses – even those with those with govmint subsidies would not do it!

      Besides .. how you gonna pay all those professors pensions and retirement health care if you don’t get the money to do so.

      Why – Jim Bacon would be all over them like flies on a dead possum if UVA had unfunded pensions… right?

      Thank GAWD that Clown Show in Richmond keeps their grubby little hands off of higher ed!

      HOME RULE for UVA!

      😉

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