Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a story titled, “Colleges Spend Like There’s No Tomorrow,” about tuition increases at major universities, especially as state funding for higher education diminishes. The article attempts an analysis of trends and makes comparisons across 50 “flagship” universities nationwide, however we believe it is helpful to provide the Penn State community additional context.
Even as state funding has decreased dramatically, Penn State has curbed tuition increases aggressively in the last 10 years and, when adjusted for inflation, Pennsylvania-resident students pay less for a Penn State education today than they did a decade ago.
Our state funding for general education, when adjusted for inflation, is 39% less than what we received 20 years ago. This funding from the state — which we use to reduce in-state tuition — made up 62% of our education budget in 1970 but now accounts for just 11%.
Compared to other states, Pennsylvania currently ranks 49th in per-capita support of higher education, and compared to other public Commonwealth universities, Penn State’s funding ranks last in Pennsylvania on a per-student basis — behind the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the University of Pittsburgh, and Temple University.
Yet, compared to other state flagship universities, Penn State is among the bottom five in overall tuition increases during the last 10 years. In comparison to other public institutions within the elite Association of American Universities, Penn State’s in-state tuition increases in the last decade rank among the seven lowest out of 38 schools.
Our most recent budget included no in-state increases at Commonwealth Campuses, included permanent increases in financial aid, and stratified tuition increases to prioritize access for in-state students.
We have added necessary services to support the student experience, many of which weren’t offered by universities two decades ago.
During the last 20 years — as enrollment has grown by more than 10,000 students — we have continued to invest in mental health support; assistance securing housing, food, and transportation (which often create barriers to earning a degree); career services; financial literacy counseling; academic advising; tutoring; health services; entrepreneurial offerings and more. Each of these requires expert professional staff to operate. We also continue to upgrade student housing, classrooms, labs and university technology systems to provide the best possible student experience.
As Penn State is ranked among the nation’s top 30 public research universities, our robust multi-disciplinary research not only attracts the highest quality scholars and teachers, but it also provides unique educational opportunities to our students. Across our university, undergraduate research opportunities exist in every discipline, at every campus, and during every year of a student’s career at Penn State.
We’ve addressed changes in research and learning in the last 20 years with new facilities and capabilities.
We have built new facilities to address how advancing technology has changed both knowledge creation and learning, with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration. The Millennium Science Complex, the Willard Building, and the Huck Life Sciences facilities are just three examples, though many more exist across all our campuses.
We invest in academic and student success first.
We spend by far the largest percentage of our educational funding on academic and student services. Top professors provide the bedrock of the educational experience, and we strive to attract the most talented academics in the world. In addition to being teachers, Penn State faculty lead their fields, solve interdisciplinary problems, conduct groundbreaking research, advise on policy, and found new businesses — and they have significant connections well beyond our university.
Many of our auxiliary programs are self-sustaining, including Intercollegiate Athletics.
Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics is one of only a handful of self-supporting athletics programs in the country. This means no tuition dollars and none of the state’s appropriation are used to pay for Penn State’s Division 1 athletics programs.
Many auxiliary services at Penn State — such as housing and food services, a bakery, the Bryce Jordan Center, the Multi-Media Print Center, Transportation Services and parking, and the University Park Airport — all needed because of our rural locations, are self-supporting financially.
We strive to provide students with the highest quality education as cost-effectively as possible.
Today, Penn State students, and the university’s network of 750,000 alumni worldwide, are some of the most highly recruited graduates. In fact, in surveys of leading U.S. corporate recruiters, Penn State was identified as a top school for its preparation of graduates who possess what employers look for in potential employees.
Despite the funding challenges we’ve faced for decades, we remain committed to offering students the highest standards of excellence while continuing to minimize tuition increases, especially for Pennsylvania-resident students.