Indiana University this week unveiled a plan to significantly reduce undergraduate tuition for summer-semester students beginning in 2012 in order to provide financial relief to many of its students, promote year-round college attendance and decrease the time it takes many students to earn a degree.
Beginning next summer, Indiana resident undergraduates enrolled at any of the seven IU campuses statewide will receive a 25 percent discount in tuition for courses taken in the summer. Nonresident undergraduate students will receive an equivalent dollar reduction in their tuition. For those students who take a full academic course load in the summer, the tuition reductions will result in a savings ranging from more than $700 at IU’s regional campuses to about $1,000 at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and $1,050 at IU Bloomington.
The plan, announced by IU President Michael A. McRobbie also will allow for more efficient use of university facilities across the state.
“This large tuition discount is being offered to IU students in order to provide important financial relief for students and their families and also a significant financial incentive for attending IU year-round,” McRobbie said. “Greater attendance in the summer will allow IU to make more efficient use of its facilities. It also will provide an affordable option for students who want to complete their degrees at IU on a faster track than the traditional model.”
IU currently operates summer sessions at its campuses across the state, and summer enrollment has remained relatively constant for the past decade. In 2011, approximately 43,000 individual students took at least one class during the summer, representing less than 40 percent of IU’s total student population.
“For public universities to thrive and grow in these challenging times, we have to be willing to re-examine everything we do with an eye toward finding efficiencies and adapting to the needs of our students who will be entering the 21st-century global marketplace,” McRobbie said.
“This initiative reflects the world in which our students live today and provides them valuable financial relief as they pursue their degrees,” he added. “I am confident this will help us graduate more students in less time and allow our graduates to leave IU with less debt as they start their careers.”
