Testimony, February 19, 2004, Office of the President, University of Maryland

Quality and Access: The Essentials of a Great University

The problem we face is principally one of funding for quality and access. Tuition is increasingly an important component of that funding, which highlights the tuition problem.

The nation is nearing the end of a 25-year "funding model" cycle for higher education that has six distinguishing characteristics. Over the last quarter century the following changes have been steadily and incrementally taking place:

1. Federal scholarship support (Pell grants) has decreased steadily (once supporting 86% of tuition and now 38%);

2. The fraction of state budgets committed to higher education has decreased steadily (Maryland ranks 38th among the states in the percentage of personal income supporting public higher education);

3. The number of students has increased (from 12.1 million at fall enrollment in 1980 to 15.3 million in 2000) even before the baby-boom echo is upon us;

4. The demand for quality is uniformly high (there is absolutely no market for low-cost, low- quality education);

5. Tuition has risen as a consequence of 1 through 4 above;

6. Student debt at graduation has risen steadily as a consequence of small Pell grant increases, Stafford loans and steadily increasing tuition (the average debt nationally in 2002 was $18,900—up from $11,400 in 1997).

In the model above, the increases in tuition and debt have been caused by the declines in state and federal support and the increases in demand for access and quality. The end of this model cycle will result when we reach the limit of manageable debt by the students. Aside from the onerous public policy implications of having two-thirds of the nation's graduates assuming alarming debt burdens, practically speaking, how much more debt can actually be managed? The limit of manageable debt must be at hand and already surpassed for many students.

Access is the first characteristic to be compromised, and quality is not far behind if tuition caps are proposed without additional support. It is quite easy to provide access without quality. It is also not difficult to offer quality without access. Only changes in the State's priority for supporting higher education can preserve both access and quality.

We are proud that the University has managed to attain its stature and raise the entering qualifications of freshmen without becoming a University only for the affluent. Recent data from all state flagship institutions show that between 1992 and 2001 the University of Maryland increased the number of the students admitted receiving Pell grants--those with the fewest economic resources and most financial need--by 3.9%. The mean number of Pell grant students admitted by the other flagship institutions decreased by 1%.

Most all Maryland students who earn admission to Maryland can patch together enough funds to pay for their education. For those resident students who must rely on loans, the debt they and their parents accumulate over four years is now close to $14,000 and rising. In addition, most students work to keep their debt burden as low as it is. The University employs more than 5,000 students, most of whom have financial need, who earned in FY03 more than $20 million in wages.

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Office of the President, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742