Cash-strapped US universities eye Gulf students
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Cash-strapped state universities in the US, which have seen a slump in funding, have hired international recruiters in a bid to attract Gulf students to their campuses and boost revenues.
Cash-strapped state universities in the US, which have seen a slump in funding, have hired international recruiters in a bid to attract Gulf students to top-up revenues, according to a report on Thursday.
US State and local spending for public university students dropped to a 25-year low last year, according to the most recent inflation-adjusted numbers. On average, states provided US$6,290 per student enrolled at a public institution compared with US$8,025 in 1986, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
Some of the biggest cuts have come since the 2007 to 2009 US recession as states have faced massive shortfalls. The cuts would have been deeper if states did not have access to federal dollars through President Obama's economic stimulus programme.
The University of Missouri has struggled to adjust as its appropriation from the state fell to US$165m this year, down almost 15 percent from 2001. At the same time its enrollment climbed by 45 percent to 33,805.
Tuition accounted for 60 percent of its operating funds in 2012, up from roughly 25 percent in 1990, one reason the University of Missouri has hired several recruiters in recent year, including someone to find prospective students from overseas, according to a report by Reuters.
"We are focusing on countries with a rising middle class and good schools," said Ann Korschgen, enrollment management vice provost at the university. That includes places like Brazil, Korea, China, India and Saudi Arabia.
It is a sign of the times, say those who have remained in public education.
"It's really kind of sad because we're the land grant school," says Mary Jo Banken, a spokeswoman for the University of Missouri. "The state does not adequately fund us so we have to look for funding elsewhere."
As a result of the drop in funding, US public universities - which historically have graduated the majority of US college students - are eliminating programs, raising tuition and accepting more out-of-state students, who typically pay significantly higher rates.
The upshot of it all? Students face greater competition for admission, significantly higher tuition bills and bigger debt loads upon graduation.
"I'm concerned about the costs of these universities," said Mike Eskew, a former CEO of United Parcel Service, who in 1972 graduated from Indiana's Purdue University without loans. "Those institutions helped build this country. For people like me who grew up in small towns, they were the ladder to the world."
The state cutbacks also mean students are attending larger classes, frequently taught by part-time professors earning dismal salaries. In 2009, less than a quarter of all university faculty were full-time compared with 45 percent in 1975, according to the American Association of University Professors.
"The quality of education is a continuous worry and focus," said Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and former president of Michigan State University. "As state support has been reduced, states have been looking more to universities even as they're cutting back." Despite the decreasing funding, he said, "You need to have these institutions feel as if they're part of the state."
The shift has been dramatic. Last year, Michigan provided the University of Michigan a mere 4.5 percent of its budget. The school's US$7.8bn endowment funded US$266m, almost as much as it received in state support.
Despite more than US$235m in spending cuts and cost-saving measures to non-academic areas since 2004 - ranging from limiting the colors of Post-it notes to installing dual flush toilets to save water - the University of Michigan is fortunate because it has a big endowment.
"We saw this coming," said Rick Fitzgerald, a university spokesman. "We made strategic cuts ahead so we weren't pushed into doing things we didn't want to do."
Other schools are not so lucky. New Hampshire cut funding for its university system by about half in 2011-12, and the University of New Hampshire now receives only 7 percent of its funding from the state compared with 32 percent 20 years ago.
As a result, the school followed a similar game plan taken by many schools. It froze hiring, laid off workers, hiked tuition and accepted more out-of-state students. The percent of out-of-state students is expected to climb in the new academic year to 56 percent, compared with 47 percent last year and 39 percent in 1991.
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