Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
W.A., Roanoke
A: Despite a large difference in the cost of courses at the Graduate Center, democracy of a sort is at work in these figures.
You pointed out a brochure from the center that shows a leap from Radford's cost of $411 for a three-hour class in the master of business administration program to Tech's cost of $771 for a three-hour MBA class.
Each university bases its tuition charge on the average cost of all its classes.
Radford, Tech and UVa are consistent in several respects: Each charges the same amount for an off-campus course anywhere in the state, whether it's taught in Abingdon, Fredericksburg or Hampton Roads. Tech and UVa have a slight difference in the cost of on-campus and off-campus courses, and Radford has no difference.
Also at each school, relatively low-expense classroom lecture courses - English, for example - have the same base cost as those using laboratories with expensive equipment and staff.
Virginia Tech, with higher costs for the technology emphasis in its overall curriculum, says $771 is the average cost of a three-hour graduate course.
Radford, with only a few degree programs that require expensive lab equipment, has less overhead in its costs.
Nevertheless, Radford likes to point out, its MBA program is accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. Of Radford's 395 full-time faculty, 309 have either doctoral degrees or the highest degree in their fields.
Of Tech's 1,466 faculty in 1994, 1,230 held the highest degree available in their field. Tech says its many high-tech degree programs in such fields as engineering, architecture and agriculture are more expensive to offer than the humanities.
State-of-the-art equipment costs a lot and so do professors in these fields who can command high salaries in private industry.
There is talk in education circles about charging more tuition to students who major in the high-tech degree programs.
You also noted that UVa courses at the Roanoke Valley Graduate Center cost less than Tech's.
While the costs are different, the courses being offered are quite different too. UVa courses listed in the brochure are not part of degree programs and cost less because they don't require counseling and library services, UVa said.
The brochure listed UVa courses offered primarily to local teachers for their licensing requirements, at a cost of $423 for a three-hour course.
A more accurate comparison, though it's not listed in that particular brochure, would be UVa's charge of $645 for engineering courses it teaches at centers around the state.
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by CNB