Despite tough economic conditions for students and parents, University of Houston System regents recently voted to raise tuition at all four of its campuses beginning next fall.
Not surprisingly, UH officials claim they have done everything possible to cut costs. However, students don’t seem to agree with that assessment. They presented regents with alternatives, including freezing faculty salaries.
When asked how much staff the system was willing to let go, the administrator of finance said it would be less than one percent.
Regents did express sympathy for students but maintained they couldn’t manage the loss of revenue during a time when the university was striving to become a tier-1 research institution. This excuse begs the question: should research be the top priority at UH when it requires raising tuition during the worst recession our country has seen in decades?
One student had it exactly right when he told the regents who would be voting on the increase, “In the real world, this business model would not happen. When revenue is low, businesses don’t raise prices.”
In making this observation, the student brings up an important point, intentionally or not. The higher education market lacks sufficient competition. If universities operated under a free-market model, they would have scrubbed down every aspect of their operations before asking their customers to pay higher prices.
Free markets have a funny way of forcing businesses to re-prioritize during economic hard times. The same cannot be said for government agencies because they have the luxury of asking for more money. The Foundation’s higher education reforms would help infuse competition into the higher education market, keeping costs under control and quality high.
– Elizabeth Young