Despite tuition hikes Tufts fares better than peers

After the next round of tuition hikes Tufts will just squeak under the forty large mark by one single dollar.

Before scrambling to save, however, an accompanying hike in the financial aid budget may soften the blow for many students.

The Board of Trustees announced this past week a 4.5 percent tuition increase for the 2004-05 year, raising the tuition total to $30,203. After room and board ($9,030) and other required fees ($766) are factored in, the cost of a Tufts education is $39,999, not including textbooks and personal expenses.

For the next year, though, undergraduate aid has been increased six percent, graduate aid five percent, and tuition remission 4.5 percent. The Tufts budget for student aid for 2004-05 will be set at around $43 million.

This development is yet another example of rapidly rising costs of higher education. Increased science and research costs, competitive faculty salaries, student healthcare, and the withdrawal of government support has all contributed to driving up expenses for both public and private colleges across the country.

This year, the budget for the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering combined will be just over $260 million. This represents about 50 percent of the University's total budget, which is around $500 million.

Executive Administrative Dean Wayne Bouchard said that Tufts has a difficult balancing act with all these factors.

"Everyone is very focused on trying to keep Tufts affordable. At the same time, everyone is very focused on keeping Tufts excellent." he said.

The 4.5 percent tuition increase is less severe than the 4.9 percent rise for the 2002-03 school year.

Student response to the higher tuition, however, is expected to be the same. "It's usually negative," co-chair of the Budget and Priorities Committee (BaPC) Professor Robert Guertin said. "It pleases no one. But it has to happen."

This smaller incremental rise in costs is due to successful fundraising efforts, alumni-outreach programs, and goals for expanding the school's endowment, Bouchard said.

Increasing funding from outside sources is the key to keeping tuition and fees as low as possible, Bouchard said. Tufts is largely "tuition dependent" with tuition and fees financing 81 percent of the budget. The remainder of the budget is funded by the endowment, the capital campaign, and the Tufts annual fund.

Despite this relative decrease in tuition rises, the fact remains that a college education is more expensive than ever.

"For students who have taken the time to understand how the budget works, they are always very impressed with what we do, and the fact that we always try to make sure that Tufts continues to be as affordable as can be," Bouchard said. "At the same time, does anyone look forward to a four to five percent increase? Never."

The budget process begins with the BaPC. Using preliminary information about school expenditures, the group formulates a set of budgetary recommendations for the following year, which they submit to a council of deans and senior administrators. The council forms its own proposal to give to the Board of Trustees, which makes a final decision a few months later.

Student opinions are not forgotten, administrators said. "There is a lot of student input," said Guertin. "Five committee members are undergraduates and one is a graduate. They have as much say as a faculty member."

One of those students was TCU President Chike Aguh. "A big priority was undergraduate and graduate financial aid. We wanted to do our best to increase that. I am pleased with the decisions that came out of that committee," Aguh said.

How are the students chosen?

For the future, the administration will continue to try to minimize tuition rates and fees while maintaining current spending. "I think it's safe to say that there's no single item that the University has to cut back on. I think the school is good at keeping costs down right across the board," Professor Guertin said.

Tufts compares its overall spending and tuition rates with about a dozen of the top research universities in the country -- including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Duke, and Northwestern. In the early 1990s, Tufts was rated the second most expensive school in the group, and currently ranks as the fourth highest.