Indiana University announced a plan Tuesday to encourage more students to graduate in four years.
President Michael McRobbie's announcement, in accordance with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education's strategic plan, comes almost a year after Ball State initiated its own plan for getting students through college on time.
"Essentially, it effectively freezes tuition for students after their sophomore year if they're on track to graduate in four years," said Ryan Piurek, director of news and media at IU Bloomington. "It's an effort to provide our students with some significant financial relief for students and their families and give them additional incentives to graduate on time or even earlier."
The on-time completion award would be equal to any increase in tuition and fees that students might incur during the remaining two years, he said.
"If they do not graduate within four years, then they will pay the current campus tuition and fee rates in subsequent semesters," according to the transcript of McRobbie's speech on IU's website.
The award will be available to students at the beginning of Fall Semester 2013.
Ball State announced an incentive plan in November 2011 to help students graduate in four years as part of the ICHE strategic plan for Indiana universities.
"While the names and details differ, the fundamentals of what IU announced [Tuesday] and Ball State's Completion Scholarship are fundamentally the same," said Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for Marketing and Communications. "At the end of the day, they are both plans to reduce tuition and fees for students graduating in four years."
Ball State's plan includes a $500 scholarship credited to a student's last semester if they are on track to graduate in four years. Also, online courses and summer school have been made less expensive. Even the number of credit hours most degrees require has been reduced to a minimum of 120 instead of the previous 126, said Randy Howard, vice president of Business Affairs and treasurer.
"We've taken a number of measures to remove obstacles to graduation and help ensure students can complete their degree within in four years," Howard said. "I think any university that demonstrates that kind of commitment that we have and that IU has, those are going to be things that are going to be attractive to students."
It's hard to say if the tuition freeze plan will affect the amount of students applying to IU, Piurek said.
"The main goal is to hold down costs and to help our students graduate on time and our admissions have been strong," he said. "I think we have heard the message that affordability and cost is a major determiner in where they choose to go to school."
ICHE has no direct authority over the schools, but Indiana lawmakers follow the commission's recommendations in doling out state support. In the past few years, the commission has pulled back millions in state support, and then doled a portion of the money back when the schools meet certain targets - for improving graduation rates, for example. The focus on degree completion, particularly in four years, has increased in recent years.
"With that as a backdrop, it makes sense that all of the public universities, Ball State, IU, others included are looking for everything we can do to help students complete their degree in four years," Proudfoot said.
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