Missouri State cuts student costs, hoping to ease possible tuition hike

Missouri State University cut some college costs for its students this week and expects that the move will help keep enrollment up in the future.

In a move that represents the most significant revisions to what it cost to live on the Springfield campus and complete a bachelor’s degree in MSU President Clif Smart’s tenure, officials announced five initiatives that are going save big bucks for students and their parents.

The changes come as the university predicts that state funding cuts will put MSU in a tight budget position. Knowing it may be face a financial challenge that could lead to tuition hike, university leaders went looking for ways to save students money now and ease financial stress on MSU families in coming months.

The university is reducing the number of credit hours needed to complete a bachelor’s degree for 80 percent of the programs, knowing that the faster a student gets through college the less it costs them.

Also, the university is expanding scholarships, freezing housing rates and lowering meal prices, and making less expensive textbook options available.

The changes, except for the credit reduction, will be in effect for the 2018-19 school year. The shorter time to a bachelor’s degree starts in the current semester.

Smart said on Thursday that one of his favorite things to ask students “is why they chose Missouri State.” Without exception each year, he said, “The No. 1 response I receive is that Missouri State is more affordable than other major universities.”

That affordability, Smart said, is mostly why Missouri State has set new enrollment records for six consecutive years. That’s significant now when other universities of its size in the state are seeing big declines.

This year Missouri State set another enrollment record with more than 26,000 students.

More than 4,800 of them come from greater St. Louis and more than 2,000 from the Kansas City area. Most MSU graduates stay to live and work in the state. For example, 500 Missouri State grads now work for Cerner Corp in Kansas City.

Tuition at MSU has increased far slower than at other institutions across the country.

A decade ago tuition and fees at Missouri State were $300 below the national average. Today they are more than $2,600 below the national average, Smart said.

And at $7,306 for undergraduate tuition and fees for Missourians, MSU maintains a lower cost than most other four-year public schools in the state, including the University of Central Missouri, where tuition and fees for that same group is $7,520; the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where the cost is $9,763; and at University of Missouri in Columbia, where the cost is $9,787.

Missouri State is cutting the total number of hours required to graduate from 125 to 120 hours, a move that has the potential to save students more than $1,000 over the course of their studies, Smart said.

Freezing housing rates for three of the university’s residence halls will affect more than 1,300 students. Meanwhile, new and returning students will benefit from a partnership between the MSU bookstore and faculty offering streamlined versions of texts at far lower costs.

The final piece, Smart said, is adding $1.5 million in scholarship opportunities. That will include broadening the selection criteria and increasing by $500 the first-year value of its Missouri State Promise Scholarship, which goes to low-income students who have not qualified for other academic scholarships or aid.

The cost of food on campus is also going down, once a new food service contract is negotiated.

While in the current fiscal year MSU has experienced a $6.5 million reduction in state funding, Smart said he and his staff will continue to advocate for more equitable funding for his university and Missouri higher education in general.

“We are confident that the affordability measures we announced ... will soften the impact of any tuition and fee increases for all our students, but particularly for those students struggling to pay for college now.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 2:31 PM with the headline "Missouri State cuts student costs, hoping to ease possible tuition hike."