In March, the UW System Board of Regents will consider a proposal by the UW-Madison School of Business to raise tuition $500 per semester for business majors and $150 for business certificate students. This plan would align the business school with most of the Big Ten—only Minnesota doesn't have differential tuition for B-school majors—as well as UW-Milwaukee, which for years has charged business students a premium.
The plan makes sense because those who directly benefit from the resources of the business school would shoulder more of the cost. Given the rarefied salaries in some business disciplines, these costs are often considerable.
The proposal would generate almost $1.4 million annually from the school's 1300 undergraduate business majors and 200 certificate students. Of this amount, about 75 percent would be used for faculty and staff salaries.
Having additional financial flexibility is important because several faculty slots have remained vacant in recent years due to lack of funds, making it difficult to maintain quality programs. Additional advisors will also be needed when the business school begins accepting sophomores in 2009.
In addition to funding salaries, a quarter of the new revenue would be allotted to financial aid for business students. Although giving financial aid to potential business moguls may seem illogical—like carrying coals to Newcastle, Wis., or bratwurst to Sheboygan, Wis.—higher tuition would reduce access among less advantaged students unless balanced by additional aid.
Faculty salaries vary widely across departments, as does the earning potential of their graduates. We can't hope to fine tune tuition to account for all such discrepancies. To do so would create a nightmare of haggling over the equitable distribution of costs and benefits. Nevertheless, the business school is administratively and economically distinct enough that differential tuition for B-School students should be adopted, both as a means to enhance the school's academic quality and insure adequate access.
