Most graduate students in Penn's nine Ph.D.-granting schools will pay lower tuition next year thanks to University-wide reforms that standardize fees in order to enhance academic flexibility and increase financial efficiency.
The new tuition is $24,000 per year for students in their first through fifth years and $3,000 per year for the sixth year and beyond.
All enrolled students will also pay a general fee - which funds University-wide resources such as student government and health services - of $2,000 until year five and $500 after year six.
Changes in how much students will pay depends on their school because each one currently sets its own tuition. The University's push for standardization was prompted by a 2004 accreditation review of Penn's Ph.D. programs that recommended charging students flat rates rather than rates based on course load, Associate Provost for Education Andrew Binns said.
Though most students will see reductions, School of Arts and Science students' tuition will increase after year six because their current tuition is lower than the revenue-neutral figure determined by the administration.
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly chairman Andrew Rennekamp said GAPSA is excited about standardization because it "is a step in the right direction to removing a substantial barrier to interdisciplinary coursework" since students often face logistical hurdles in taking courses outside their home school under the current system.
The new system also makes it easier for faculty members to distribute grant money to Ph.D. students from schools with different tuitions, he said.
Rennekamp added that although GAPSA supports the change, it has expressed concerns over the increased cost for some SAS students and the University's responsible use of increased revenue.
SAS students beyond their sixth year currently pay $1,278 per year. With the standardized tuition and general fee, they will pay $3,500, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Jack Nagel said. According to GAPSA data, 16.4 percent of all SAS Ph.D. students are enrolled beyond their sixth year.
"That's a big increase for those students," Nagel said. "But the tuition and general fee figures are set centrally. SAS cannot control that."
Nagel added that for next year SAS is "strongly considering" easing the burden on students in or past their seventh year by only requiring them to pay what they expected plus the general fee - $1,350. A final decision will come in the next two weeks, he said.
The higher cost may also compel "lingering students" to graduate in timely fashions - an ongoing problem in some programs, Nagel said.
To that end, the tuition changes include a 10-year cap on Ph.D. programs. Rennekamp said that the time limit also dissuades programs from retaining students to benefit from increased tuition revenue. GAPSA also supports more concrete guidelines for Ph.D. programs, such as committees to review dissertation progress, he added.
Administrators, graduate groups and GAPSA are continuing to discuss specific aspects of tuition reform and its implementation.
"Increased flexibility means we can look at how to make sure our students are getting the best mix of coursework and research experience and their capacity to work across boundaries," Binns said.
