In Temple’s College of Liberal Arts, the cost of in-state tuition is $14,398 and out-of-state tuition is $24,704, not including the $690 university services fee.
The difference—which remains fairly consistent among all of Temple’s schools and colleges—amounts to more than $10,000 of added expenses to non-Pennsylvania students. But Ken Kaiser, the university’s CFO and treasurer, said the costs are lopsided due to Temple’s partnership with state government to benefit Pennsylvania residents.
“When Temple gets its state appropriation—this year it’s $147 million—we get that money for one reason only, and that one reason is to provide discounted tuition to the citizens of Pennsylvania,” Kaiser said. “That 147 is paid for by the people of Pennsylvania, so that the students that come from Pennsylvania can have access to a college degree at a less expensive price.”
Kaiser added Pennsylvania subsidizes the tuition for in-state students and the recent budget impasse could have had a critical effect on the university’s tuition costs.
“When the budget impasse happens and it looks like, ‘Are we really going to get our money this year?’” Kaiser said. “If we didn’t get our money we couldn’t simply increase tuition for everybody. That wouldn’t be fair.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the academic year of 2010-11, it was $8,990 more on average for students to attend an out-of-state university.
In addition, in-state and out-of-state tuition costs at Temple have jumped nearly 12 and 9 percent respectively since 2012-13.
Temple currently enrolls 37,788 students and 72.6 percent are Pennsylvania residents.
David Glezerman, assistant vice president of the university’s bursar office, said the tuition is set by the Board of Trustees through the university’s budget process.
He also added how difficult it is to gain Pennsylvania residency status if a student is from another state.
“If you’re coming here from New York, for the purpose of going to school at Temple,” Glezerman said. “You’re not going to be able to claim Pennsylvania residency under the guidelines that exist.”
These guidelines include a continuous 12-month residency period in the state for purposes other than education. Students cannot be dependent on their parents’ taxes and also must receive financial aid based on living in Pennsylvania.
Some states use tuition reciprocity agreements—an agreement allowing residents of one state to attend a college for a reduced tuition in a nearby state—but Pennsylvania is one of eight states which don’t provide this agreement for students.
Florida, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas are the other states which don’t use reciprocity agreements.
Glezerman believes states in the region need to work cohesively in order for reciprocity agreements to work.
“I think you have to have all the states in the region pretty much working together on that,” Glezerman said. “I think if you were a Rutgers student for example, in New Jersey you don’t have that reciprocity either between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. That’s more of a state issue than a Temple-specific issue.”
Tom Ignudo can be reached at thomas.ignudo@temple.edu or on Twitter @Ignudo5.
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