Non-resident tuition rate a winner for South Dakota

Non-resident tuition rate a winner for South Dakota When the South Dakota Board of Regents in 2006 adopted lower tuition rates charged to all out-of-state students, the concern was whether the state would lose money on the deal. Two years later, those concerns have been laid aside. The non-resident tuition rate is a winner for South Dakota public universities. The boardâ�?�?s action lowered non-resident tuition rates for first-time freshmen and new transfer students to 150 percent of in-state rates, starting with the 2006 summer term. This move was deliberately taken to make a South Dakota public university education more attractive to regional and international students, said Robert T. Tad Perry, the regentsâ�?�? executive director. A tuition report presented this week shows that, when considering the additional fees brought in by those new students, the impact of the non-resident reduced tuition program over the past year has been a positive $797,742 to the university system. The financial scenario assumed when the new rates were adopted was that the universities would have to more than double their number of non-resident students to make the reduced rate program revenue neutral. Campuses geared up their marketing plans to increase the number of non-residents and keep the tuition pool whole. Campuses had to guarantee they would generate at least 4,706 credit hours or an additional 157 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. In the first year of the program, the actual number of additional student FTEs was 192, and for the year just completed it amounted to 237. â�?�?The success of the non-resident reduced tuition program lies squarely with the campuses themselves, who have done a terrific job of reaching out and marketing a South Dakota college education to new students from across the country and internationally,â�? Perry said. â�?�?This is definitely a win-win for the university system.â�?