A recent report by the College Board points to a nationwide
trend that University of California students have expressed concern
about for some time ““ fees for higher education are outpacing
inflation and financial aid is not meeting the challenge.
Though tuition and fee increases nationwide are lower than they
have been in recent years, there are still concerns that students
will be priced out of college, according to the report released
Tuesday.
“We have deserving students who are being kept out of
college or have difficulty completing degrees because of a lack of
money,” Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, told
the Associated Press.
The College Board is the non-profit group which runs the
SAT.
Ravi Poorsina, a spokeswoman for the UC Office of the President,
pointed to some inadequacies in the study, particularly the
problems with making generalizations about schools in greatly
different geographical areas.
She said the study may not necessarily apply to the UC.
“It’s important to keep in mind that each state and
university is unique, making it difficult to draw broad conclusions
on the current state of financial aid,” Poorsina said.
One factor she said should be considered is state funding, which
varies widely between different school systems across the
country.
When it comes to the UC in particular, Poorsina said she was
confident the report’s findings were not accurate.
“I can certainly say that we have been successful in
covering the fee increases for our students with the greatest
needs,” she said.
The bigger question involves how middle-income students can be
helped as fees rise.
Both Poorsina and Student Regent Adam Rosenthal spoke about how
low-income students are being served, but adequate programs for
middle-income students are harder to find.
Whether or not the College Board report itself is a good
assessment of the UC, students in California have voiced concern
about the cost of education for several years. University fees have
been increasing rapidly ““ from a UC average of $5,530 per
quarter for the 2003-2004 academic year to the current level at
$7,062 per quarter at UCLA.
The best way the UC has ensured that financial aid keeps up with
fees in the past is by return-to-aid, which puts a certain
percentage of fees towards financial aid, Rosenthal said.
“If we have a strong return-to-aid commitment, we will
help to ensure that, as fee increases outpace inflation … there
will be sufficient funds for low income students,” Rosenthal
said.
Without that commitment, the UC is “doing a disservice to
those same students,” he said.
And as it stands now, 25 percent of student fees are being used
towards financial aid.
Rosenthal said students needs can only be met by increasing that
amount to 33 percent, where it has been in the past.
“If we peg return-to-aid at a third, it does a decent job
ensuring that financial aid monies are available to low income
students,” he said.