Georgia regents admitted Wednesday that guidelines for out-of-state tuition waivers granted by state colleges and universities need to be improved. But instead of letting lawmakers make those decisions, the board plans to implement its own policy changes next month.
In December, a state audit found that the University System of Georgia waived about $106 million in out-of-state tuition during the 2012-2013 school year. Nonresident tuition was almost $9,300 more per semester than in-state tuition at some schools that year. By awarding the waivers, institutions are potentially forgoing that revenue, the audit reported. But the amount of missed money is hard to determine without knowing whether an out-of-state student would pay the full tuition without the waiver.
The University System views the waivers as a key recruitment tool during a time of declining enrollment and increased competition.
The state doesn’t provide funding to the University System to offset these waivers, but state funds are appropriated for instruction. And the audit found that about $42 million in state appropriations helped pay for the instruction of recipients of these out-of-state waivers.
Auditors noted that the Board of Regents did not have reliable out-of-state tuition data, lacked clear guidelines on the process for approving discretionary waivers at each institution, and that the grade-point averages and test scores of some students receiving waivers for being superior students didn’t always meet the “highly qualified” level.
The audit could prompt action this year by lawmakers, who come back to work Monday for the state’s next legislative session. Its findings have drawn the ire of some who believe the state’s colleges and universities would do better to focus their energy — and dollars — on Georgia’s own students instead of those from outside its borders.
University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby is a strong supporter of the waivers.
“We contend now and forever that there is a valued place for them in our institutions,” he said Wednesday. At the same time the audit was being conducted and released, there was a growing movement in other states for increasing these types of waivers to stay competitive with other schools, he said.
Any attempt to curtail the system’s decision-making on the issue would likely be met with a fight. In a bit of self-preservation, regents are proposing to streamline the system’s waiver program by eliminating one defunct category and combining the remaining 17 waiver categories into eight. The board is also considering revising its policies to include specific academic standards for students to receive a superior student waiver and reviewing the scope of its athletics waivers.
The regents are expected to vote on the policy changes in February.
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