Correction: A tuition rate of $227.44 per credit hour, excluding fees, will be charged in the fall for existing online-only undergraduate courses offered by the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The fall rates were omitted in this article.
Initial estimates put the cost of a college degree at $18,000 for students enrolled in the online-only eVersity, the new University of Arkansas System venture aimed at attracting older learners who have jobs and families.
“We think that’s manageable for someone who’s working, particularly if we could have them pay it off periodically,” said UA System President Donald Bobbitt at a May 12 legislative committee on education, adding that, “We’re still seeing if we can drive that down further.”
Courses are expected to be offered beginning in late 2015.
Since unveiling plans for the standalone university in March, UA System leaders have described it as offering “career-relevant” degrees in six-week chunks, which would be more manageable for working adults.
But they have also stressed affordability as key to the eVersity’s allure.
The $150 per-credit-hour charge Bobbitt talked about would be less than two-thirds of the $260.59 per-credit-hour charge for University of Arkansas at Fayetteville undergraduates.
The eVersity costs also would be below what UA charges undergraduates for already-existing online-only courses offered in a few programs, which have cost $211.77 per credit hour, not including fees, according to UA’s website.
Such courses offered by UA System campuses would continue separately from eVersity’s offerings.
The venture remains in the planning stages, however, with the eVersity’s first three hires having begun work only recently.
Two are from the University of Texas at Arlington, where Bobbitt served as provost before joining the UA System.
Part of their jobs will be to hammer out details on the cost to get the program up and running.
“What the tuition ought to cover in our case is really two things,” said Michael Moore, the UA System’s vice president for academic affairs and a former administrator at the University of Texas at Arlington. “It ought to cover our expenses, plus some margin to allow us to continue to develop additional programs.”
Bobbitt has said the school won’t ask for regular state funding, so revenue from tuition must support the school’s operations.
Bobbitt also emphasized to legislators that the eVersity is a systemwide venture. Faculty members will develop courses and teach them. But while Moore said university officials “have given thought as to how we’ll compensate faculty,” no decisions have been made.
Total expenses unknown
To keep costs low for students, there will be a push to avoid costly textbooks and instead use free teaching materials known as open educational resources, Bobbitt told state legislators — also saying that part of the “business model in working with faculty is to pay them extra if they will agree to OER materials.”
Moore said the cost of advising and supporting students also isn’t known, but they will be explored this summer and into the fall, he said.
Job ads for the eVersity directors cited a desire for applicants with experience in a startup environment, but each of the three hires are leaving posts at established public universities.
Tammy Harrison, eVersity’s director of student onboarding and records, most recently worked as assistant vice chancellor for enrollment services and director of financial aid at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She will earn $120,000 yearly.
Linda Wilson, the school’s director of student experience, worked as director of the University of Texas at Arlington’s Career Development Center. She will also earn $120,000.
Harriet Watkins, director of online learning, worked as manager of the University of Texas at Arlington’s Center for Digital Teaching and Learning, where she helped develop fully online courses. She will earn $80,000 yearly.
Technology costs for the eVersity will include an information system to keep tabs on student records, such as their enrollment and grades, Moore said.
Another big expense will be buying a system to track and deliver the instructional content created by the eVersity.
Initially, “I would expect technology costs to outpace the personnel costs,” Moore said. Marketing expenses likely also will involve advertising, though Moore said he didn’t know how big of a budget item that will be.
It’s also not known how many courses or degree programs will be offered initially by the eVersity, Moore said. “Things like a business degree, information technology, something in health care, a general studies degree” are considered likely programs, Moore said.
“We’ll be responsible in scaling this right,” Moore added, with courses offered to match the numbers of students enrolling.
There may not be any distinction between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition, with the school potentially able to enroll students outside of Arkansas, as other online-only universities based elsewhere have done.
Boost college graduates
The eVersity exists in part, however, to tackle a need expressed by state leaders to boost the number of college graduates in Arkansas, a state where educational attainment lags behind the national average. About 350,000 Arkansans have completed some college without attaining a degree, according to the Lumina Foundation for Education.
Only about three out of every 10 adults from age 25 to 64 statewide have earned a two-year degree or higher, while the rate is about four in 10 nationally, according to the foundation, and Gov. Mike Beebe has said increasing the numbers of college graduates is a statewide goal.
Other states have experimented with public universities boosting online-only offerings, and not every effort has been successful, Bobbitt acknowledged to legislators.
In states where the focus has been on making four-year degrees as inexpensive as possible, leaders like Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have called for at least some degrees with a tuition expense of only $10,000 overall.
But it’s unclear in those states whether students will have a wide variety of choices along with that price tag.
To determine eVersity costs, Moore said, “There’s just a lot of variables out there right now. … We’re really trying to drive costs out as much as we can.”
The early $18,000 estimated cost for a four-year degree sounded good to Brandi Peters, a 41-year-old recent graduate of UA-Fayetteville.
“I really feel that that is gong to open the doors up for so many more people to get a college education,” said Peters, who received her bachelor’s degree in nursing in May.
To keep things affordable for her husband, Jerome, and their young son, she chose to enroll in Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville to first obtain an associate degree.
Then, she transferred to UA-Fayetteville, where her last two years in school cost about $25,000, said Peters, a Bella Vista resident who drove about 75 miles daily to get to classes and then back home.
Online classes can also help other students save on gas money, Peters said, adding that, “Every extra dollar counts.”