The Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee announced Wednesday his plans to recommend holding in-state undergraduate tuition at the 2012-13 level for the upcoming 2013-14 academic year. If approved, tuition will hold steady at $10,036.80 for the 2013-14 school year.
President Gee shared his plans as part of his testimony to the Ohio House Subcommittee on Higher Education. Gee was speaking in affirmation of Gov. Kasich’s new state higher education budget plan, which ties state higher education funding to graduation rates. President Gee led the effort to craft that higher education budget proposal.
Since Gee’s return in 2007, the university has frozen tuition for the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. If approved, this would be the fourth academic year under Gee’s leadership where tuition has been frozen.
“Given the very real needs of the students and families in Ohio, and the new level of government support that we anticipate, I intend to recommend to our Board of Trustees that we freeze in-state tuition for the coming academic year,” said Gee.
President Gee says the freeze is possible, in part, thanks to the state’s focus on the importance of higher education. He also credits recent steps to streamline operations and find creative funding strategies that the university has undertaken to reduce costs and reinvest in the university’s academic mission. In the last two years, the university has generated more than $1 billion through new financing strategies that include the sale of a Century Bond, a 50-year lease of university parking operations and a major affinity agreement with Huntington Bank.
“The Board of the University is completely aligned with President Gee on the importance of this issue and will seriously consider this recommendation,” said Robert H. Schottenstein, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “For the past several years, we have been intensely focused on a series of financial strategies designed to strengthen the university’s fiscal condition in order to keep tuition as affordable as possible for the residents of Ohio. Our strong stewardship of our resources enables us to contribute even more to our students, which, in the long run, will benefit our great state for the future.”
Ohio State has been named one of the nation’s best higher education values by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and the university continues to seek innovative financial strategies to help students earn a college degree.
The university says it invests a significant amount of resources to financially support students. Ohio State has embarked on a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign, of which $500 million is earmarked for student financial aid. In the current 2012-13 academic year, the university offers a total of $128 million on scholarships and grants. That figure is $20 million more than in the previous year and $32 million more than two years ago. In early February the university launched “The Ohio Scholarship Challenge,” a fundraising campaign that supports students from all 88 Ohio counties. The campaign seeks to raise $100 million in general undergraduate scholarship funds for Ohio State students at all campuses.
During a time of lean budgets across the nation’s colleges and universities, Ohio State says it is one of a small group of institutions to increase financial aid while keeping tuition increases to modest levels.
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