Students pay less in the form of tuition and related fees on average than their universities and colleges spend per student, according to a study members of the UW System Board of Regents will review at their meeting March 7.
UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-Whitewater were among the 150 pilot institutions in the report.
The study found UW System institutions subsidizing their students less than many of the other participants, with an average subsidy of $5,548. Subsidies at public four-year institutions ranged from approximately $4,000 to $11,000.
Also, the study showed the UW schools spending 1.6 percent of their budgets on student financial aid while the average for the other participating institutions was 5.5 percent.
The congressionally mandated study was conducted over the course of three years by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and was released Feb. 11.
\The NACUBO Report confirms our belief that the tuition 'price' at the UW System is on the lower end of the range of public four-year institutions,"" members of the UW System Board of Regents said in the March 7-8 meeting agenda. ""The UW System can extrapolate from this ranking the affordability of our colleges and universities and the efficiency of our operations.""
The report showed total expenditures per student at public four-year institutions ranged from $7,000 to $15,000. This number for the three UW System schools included in the study averaged $8,708, ranking near the lower end of the total cost range.
In 1998, the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, created a year before, issued a report calling on the nation's universities and colleges to improve their public accountability and develop better consumer information regarding prices and costs, making them more ""transparent.""
According to the summary of the report, almost every participating institution maintained a similar situation as that of UW-Madison, in which the cost of providing services and programs to students was higher than the price actually charged to students. More than 100 institutions including Princeton, Yale and Texas A&M were included in field test.
The amount the universities and colleges exceeded the tuition ranged anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $20,000.
The main aspects considered in the study were definition of price, number of full-time equivalent students, weighting of graduate students, departmental research, institutional and community costs, student financial aid and facilities and capital costs.
""Making institutional data more transparent will not correct all of the public's misperceptions about higher education,"" authors of the report said in the executive summary. ""However, it is a step in the right direction.""
No regents familiar with the report were were available as of press time.
