ITEM 115-1502-R0502

May 23-24, 2002

ITEM 115-1502-R0502   Approval of Proposal to Offer Access at 150 Percent of Resident Tuition in Programs with Excess Capacity to Non-Residents and Canadians from the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to Students Meeting the Scholarship Requirements; Montana Tech of The University of Montana

THAT: The Board of Regents of Higher Education authorizes Montana Tech of The University of Montana to offer access to non-residents and Canadians from the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan meeting the scholarship requirements in programs with excess capacity at a rate of 150 percent of resident tuition. This is not a right but an award of which qualifications in place for the award of scholarships will be used to determine eligibility. The success of the excess capacity non-resident tuition program will be reviewed annually.

EXPLANATION: Montana Tech of The University Montana is a focused science, technology, and engineering institution. This focus requires the specialized recruitment of students. Montana Tech spent $49,980 in scholarship awards to Canadians and $298,300 in scholarship awards to non-residents in FY02 in an effort to recruit students. Two areas where Montana Tech could benefit in recruiting students into excess capacity programs are 1) focused non-resident, and 2) Canada (Provinces listed above).

The unique specialty degree areas offered by Montana Tech of The University of Montana are laboratory-intensive instruction. These programs typically support a student to faculty ratio of 25 to 1. This ratio is driven by laboratory facilities and student access. Adding students to a program within the capacity of the existing faculty and laboratory resources leads only to costs in non-core credit delivery and institutional support.

An analysis of the curriculum of degrees offered at Montana Tech indicates that, on the average, 40 percent of the credits required to earn the degree are core courses offered by the major department, while 60 percent of the total credits are campus service courses. If a program has excess capacity, students can be added to that program without additional costs in degree program resources, or in other words, educated on the margin. In campus service courses, 25 new students are required before additional sections are required. It is therefore proposed that these strategic applicants be offered the tuition rate of 150 percent of the resident tuition.

TUITION (FY03) Estimated

Resident Tuition/Fees (FY 2003)            $  2,984
Non-Resident Tuition (FY 2003)             $10,312
150 Percent Tuition (FY 2003)                 $ 4,477

Preliminary analysis of the fall 2001 enrollment, number of faculty, average faculty/student ratio in degree, and service load by program indicates an excess capacity of 317 over a five-year completion period in ten degree areas on the north campus and 50 students over the two-year completion period on the south campus in four degree areas. This equates to 88 additional students per year. With that number in mind, Montana Tech requests to apply this excess capacity program to recruit no more than 60 new students per year (not to exceed 200 on campus).

The focus of Montana Tech is maintaining the high quality and rigor of programs. This excess capacity program will enable recruitment of students with high academic achievement who are likely to succeed in the degree areas. The program will be used to strategically recruit students. Montana Tech has an innovative applicant recruit database that allows faculty and staff to share information with admissions about recruits. Students eligible under this program are already included in our application pool. However, because of education costs we are unable to enroll them as students. This program would facilitate the enrollment of those students. Qualifications currently in place for the award of scholarships will be used to determine eligibility

Canadian Students. Canada has a number of institutes of technology that historically have provided students to Montana Tech. Many of the students take advantage of the articulation agreements to transfer to Montana Tech at the end of their second year of study. The exchange rate makes studying in the United States prohibitive for a large number of potential students. Montana Tech spent nearly $50,000 in scholarship funds to aid in recruiting 27 Canadian students in FY02. If those students, who on the average would provide revenue of $8,462/student, were offered tuition at 150 percent, the revenue to Tech would be $4,477/student in tuition and $1,850/student in scholarship funds or $6,327/student. The Canadians offered this Canadian Exchange Scholarship to recruit students only to programs with excess capacity.

The target programs for FY03 are:

A cost benefit analysis is attached.

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS