US colleges divided on discounts for shift to online classes

Most US colleges and universities are divided on whether to offer discounts on tuition for the upcoming semesters while continuing to offer remote instruction due to COVID-19.

While a growing number of universities are slashing tuition and fees to lure students back, some have announced no tuition cuts despite their move to online classes.

Officials at Stanford University, which has not discounted tuition since the pandemic began in early 2020, said they do not expect to do so in future quarters "if online instruction is needed".

The tuition for the spring 2021 term is $18,491 for undergraduate students at Stanford.

"Online instruction is not as effective as in-person classes. I think professors are not used to this new model and some of them were not prepared for this when the school first switched to online teaching," said Shirley Xia, a student at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

The University of California system and California State University system also do not offer discounts for online instruction. They have announced that "tuition and mandatory fees have been set regardless of the method of instruction and will not be refunded".

California State University, the largest university system in the US with 480,000 students, has moved about 93 percent of its roughly 81,000 courses this fall online.

Chancellor Tim White, at an August online meeting with students, said tuition and fees remain unchanged because classes and the supplemental services－such as tutoring, library support and career development－are still on offer, just online.

Other schools such as Princeton, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University have cut tuition 10 percent for the current academic year because the pandemic significantly diminished the student experience.

Some institutions have significantly reduced tuition and fees to lure students back.

Tuition fees

Southern New Hampshire University will provide a free year for first-year students and will cut tuition to $10,000 per year by 2021, a 61 percent cut from its current rate.

After its announcement, enrollment at the school spiked 45 percent compared to the fall of 2019. The school said the incoming fall first-year class is now the largest in its history by a significant margin.

Overall, average tuition and fees increased by 1.1 percent for in-state students at four-year public colleges and 2.1 percent for students at four-year private institutions in the 2020-21 academic year－the lowest percentage increase in three decades, said the College Board, which tracks trends in college costs and student aid.

Whether colleges are able to cut tuition will vary depending on their resources and market position, said Robert Massa, vice-president emeritus of enrollment at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Nonselective institutions with small endowments may need to cut tuition to remain competitive, he told Inside Higher Ed publication.

The move to remote instruction in early 2020 ignited questions from students and families about the value of online education. Dozens of online petitions were created by students calling for refunds or tuition discounts for the duration of online instruction.