With both Eastern Michigan University and Oakland University raising tuition above the 3.2 percent state tuition cap, MSU could gain some additional state aid, according to an MSU spokesperson.
The tuition cap was created a few years ago by the Snyder administration as a way to prevent large tuition increases by offering universities incentives, such as additional funding, for not raising it above a certain percentage.
Oakland University and Eastern Michigan University decided to raise tuition by 8.48 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, well above the cap, and both universities lost their additional performance-based state funding that is awarded as an incentive to stay below the tuition cap.
EMU will lose just over $1 million in state aid and Oakland will lose just over $1.2 million, according to The Detroit News.
That money will now be divided up among the 13 public universities that did stay below the cap, MSU spokesperson Jason Cody said. Preliminary numbers show MSU could gain an additional $500,000 from the state as a result, Cody said.
Michigan State was scheduled to receive a $3.85 million increase — about 1.5 percent — but with the additional money, Cody said they will now be closer to a $4.35 million increase to their state funding, which in total was $264.5 million last year.
EMU could gain up to an additional $10 million from their decision to break the tuition cap and forfeit $1 million in state aid.
Cody said lack of state funding has been becoming a big problem for Michigan’s public universities.
Cody said MSU used to receive about 70 percent of their funding from the state, and only about 30 percent came from student’s tuition, which allowed for lower tuition. But, over the past few decades those numbers have flipped, requiring a higher tuition to make up for the lack of state money.
Michigan State University Board of Trustees member Dianne Byrum said via email that Michigan ranks near the bottom in terms of state higher education funding.
According to a report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, only seven states allocated less funding per full-time enrolled student than Michigan in 2014.
According to the report, in 2014 Michigan only allocated about $4,765 per full-time enrolled student compared to the approximately $10,962 per full-time student in tuition revenue at Michigan’s universities.
“Education needs to be a funding priority. MSU is a great research institution and requires an investment of money and attention to remain competitive,” Byrum said via email.
In 2011, MSU received about $283 million in state funding compared to the approximately $268 million MSU is prepared to receive from the state this year. Most of that deficit is due to the 15 percent cut in higher education in 2011.
Cody said the Board of Trustees takes raising tuition very seriously and they only raise it as much as they must to ensure MSU can remain a top research university with great facilities.
“We firmly believe that one of the best ways to keep the university affordable and accessible is to keep these tuition increases as low as possible, while at the same time being able to maintain our quality, which is why if you go back and look, here at MSU, we’ve been able to keep these increases fairly incremental and fairly consistent over the past couple years,” Cody said.
Byrum said the Board of Trustees takes many things into account when setting the tuition rates.
“Several factors go into our decision when setting tuition rates,” Byrum said via email ”MSU tries to be very transparent in this process and posts information on our website. At the core of our decision-making process are the students. We want to ensure MSU remains a high-value degree and a top-rated university open to everyone regardless of income.”
Byrum said some of the factors they consider include: state appropriation, fixed operational costs like energy; health care costs, salaries, infrastructure investments and upgrades to programs and computing power.
