Differential tuition for engineers a good idea – if the money is used properly

An idea that has been talked about as one solution to help alleviate some of the universities financial woes is getting a vote from the Board of Regents.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is reviving a proposal that would require engineering students to pay $1,400 more in tuition than other undergraduates.

The Board of Regents is expected to vote on the proposal next week. If approved, tuition for engineering majors would go up $600 next fall and $400 in each of the following two years.

The College of Engineering will not be the first to implement differential tuition, business majors already have to pay an extra $500 a semester. In case you didn’t already know, I am an engineering student and despite not wanting to pay those extra couple of hundred dollars a year, I think it is a necessary change for the College of Engineering. As several of the chancellor finalists have already pointed out, our tuition is very low in comparison to our peer institutions and our College of Engineering is the only one in the Big 10 to not charge extra. The one condition I place on my endorsement of this differential tuition is that they need to use the money to increase the number of sections they offer of high demand courses. The money is coming directly from students and thus should be used exclusively to improve the education of all students. I can’t think of a better way than increasing the offerings of the most popular courses. The article makes it seem as though that is exactly what a significant portion of the money will be used for.

The engineering proposal is expected to eventually generate $3 million per year. The money would go toward hiring more engineering faculty to teach high-demand courses and updating the curriculum to reflect technological advances.

There are several courses in the College of Engineering that either are requirements for every engineering student or a significant portion of them. The most notable example of this that I can think of is a class called EPD 275: Technical Presentations. Every engineering student is required to take this class and as a result getting into it can be a nightmare. The recommended course sequence suggests taking the class the first semester of sophomore year. But, the reality is that it takes a minimum of junior standing to stand a chance of getting into any section of the class. Having tried to get into the class the past two semesters, I can speak on this from personal experience. The curriculum demands of getting an engineering degree makes trying to graduate on time a scheduling nightmare. I have 128 credits required to graduate. 16 of them are general education requirements, including the humanities, social sciences and ethnic studies requirements. The remaining 112 are basically entirely required classes divided between engineering, math and science classes. As a result of the number of required class and the number of prerequisites for some of the classes, not being able to fit a single class into your schedule as early as freshman year can mean pushing back graduation by an entire year. The student testimonial from the article rings very true:

Senior Craig MacKenzie, a civil engineering major, said he favors the plan as a way to increase funding. He expects to graduate in December but said he could have graduated this month if required courses were offered more often.

So if raising tuition means increasing scheduling flexibility and as a result allowing engineering students to graduate earlier, then it is a necessary change that would benefit every single engineering student. Other improvements like retaining the best professors, increasing funding for research and improving labs are great, but they only affect those students who take classes with those professors or those particular lab courses. Thus the extra money ought to be spent with improving high-demand course offerings as the highest priority.

And besides, when you’re getting the highest paying job with just a bachelors, you can afford to pay a bit more while you’re in school.