Board of Trustees Passes Tuition Resolution for Selected Distance Learning Courses and Programs
JONESBORO – The Board of Trustees for Arkansas State University today passed unanimously a resolution approving a change to the tuition structure for academic courses and programs offered by distance learning in conjunction with a contract between Arkansas State University and Academic Partnerships, LLC (AP).
The board was conducting its regularly scheduled quarterly meeting on the campus of ASU-Newport.
“This new tuition structure was initiated primarily because the previous tuition structure did not make provision for undergraduate courses and programs through distance learning in association with AP,” according to Dr. Dan Howard, interim chancellor. “ASU expects to begin offering undergraduate courses and programs in this format commencing in the fall semester of 2011, provided all necessary approvals are attained.”
Under the terms of the contract, AP provides to ASU marketing services, a learning management system (EPIC), and technical assistance. All academic aspects of these courses (including course content; curriculum; faculty selection, employment, and teaching of the courses; selection, employment, and evaluation of teaching assistants; textbook selection; course assignments; testing; grading; assessment; and evaluation) and all academic services (admissions, advisement, financial aid, registrar, student accounts, and information technology) are the direct responsibility of and conducted entirely by ASU.
Additionally, the previous tuition structure was cumbersome and costly to implement and monitor. The new structure calls for assessing the in-state graduate tuition rate for all domestic students enrolling in graduate courses and programs and the in-state undergraduate tuition rate for all domestic students enrolling in undergraduate courses and programs. ASU will charge international students twice the in-state tuition rates respectively for undergraduate and graduate courses and programs.
“This will make charging tuition for courses and programs offered in this format to be more efficient to implement, easier to monitor, and less confusing for students,” Howard added.
In addition, ASU will now charge students enrolled in distance learning courses and programs offered in association with AP standard university fees for technology and library costs, in addition to the application and graduation fees previously charged. Experience has revealed that students enrolled in distance learning programs are heavy users of technology and the ASU library and it is only fair and appropriate to charges for these services.
In combination, the new tuition structure and addition of the technology and library fee keeps ASU positioned well to offer high quality academic courses and programs via distance learning at a reasonable cost, Howard also said, thereby providing an excellent educational value to an expanding number of students.
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