ANNAPOLIS – In response to a $1.3 billion state deficit, likely budget cuts and an outdated tuition policy, the University System of Maryland Friday formed a task force to study tuition increases.
The group also agreed to try to assure that students who need financial aid most will get it.
The system’s current tuition policy was created about 10 years ago and doesn’t allow for increases needed because of the state’s burgeoning deficit.
“Budget issues . . . are worrisome and affecting employee morale,” system Chancellor William E. Kirwan said Friday. “A review of our current policies is timely and appropriate.”
Maryland’s in-state tuition price already ranks it among the most expensive state institutions in the nation.
In-state tuition at the system’s flagship campus in College Park, for example, is $5,670, well above the 2001-2002 national average of $3,754, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Under current tuition policy, regents are advised to limit in-state tuition increases to no more than 4 percent a year. They abided by that until this year, when tuition for Maryland residents rose 5.5 percent.
State policy also prohibits colleges and universities from charging out- of-state students more than the cost to educate them.
Regent David Nevins said the group “will take a close look” at out-of- state tuition. Because of the system’s growing prestige, students from other states may be willing to pay more to attend, he said.
At the College Park campus, out-of-state students pay $14,434 in tuition and fees.
However, the regents said they don’t want tuition increases to impede access for lower-income students.
“People who are college ready ought to have the ability to attend regardless of their financial needs,” Nevins said.
University of Maryland University College President Jerry Heeger, task force chairman, said he plans to look at colleges and universities nationwide to see how other institutions balance high tuition and need-based financial aid.
“The institutions are more and more attractive,” Heeger said. “But at the moment they become more attractive, you don’t want to put them out of reach.”