Beginning summer 2012, Ohio State University students studying exclusively online will pay additional fees, but a similar increase is not coming anytime soon to Ohio University, officials said.
OSU’s Board of Trustees voted to charge students who are studying online an additional $100 per student per term at its February meeting. OU has yet to consider such a requirement.
“We have not had any discussions along these lines, so I don't see any indication that we are heading in that direction,” said John Day, associate provost for academic budget and planning, in an email. “But that does not mean we would never look at this option sometime in the future.”
OU has differential fees in place that are dependent of the course and the campus, but does not currently employ a “blanket” online fee, said Ed Yost, OU’s interim executive director of E-learning.
The only tracks that are exclusively online are the nursing RN and BSN programs and are each priced at $153 per credit hour.
At OU’s Athens campus, the rate is $312 per credit hour.
“We are trying to grow our market,” Yost said. “We don’t want to charge too high. We want to be competitive.”
Yost estimates that 10,000 of OU’s nearly 22,000 students are enrolled in an online course.
Revenue from OSU’s increase in fees will fund “distance education student support and oversight from the Office of the University Registrar,” the resolution read.
The additional charge was a recommended by the Strategy Implementation Committee to “review tuition models for Distance Learning programs and recommend alternatives, if appropriate.”
An additional $5 per student per term will be charged to students who are from out of state and studying remotely, according to the resolution.
“These students are not in the health center or patrons at the library, but they require services that are not necessary to most other students,” Yost said.
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