As many students know, UTM has several different graduate programs and there are some questions posed about whether the graduates’ fees are too much when compared with undergraduates because they receive fewer benefits, such as not having access to the Recreation Center or the UTM Student and Health Counseling Services at their disposal.
However, the graduate program fees are strictly for Program and Services, and Technology and Facilities Fees, unlike the undergraduate who pays extra fees explicitly for the use of these amenities.
Dr. Joey Mehlhorn, the interim dean of Graduate Studies, says that most graduate-level students are working professionals and are online students more often than not. Therefore, they have less of a need for the amenities that are given to the undergraduate students who live on campus.
UTM currently has 7,296 student enrolled, both undergraduate and graduate, on campus, online and at the five centers. Only 517 students are enrolled in graduate programs in the Fall 2019 semester, according to the UTM Addenda.
Graduates pay on average somewhere between $5,308 to $12,280 in tuition fees for nine hours, depending on if they are in-state, out-of-state or international students, according to the 2019-2020 Tuition Fee Schedule Per Semester.
Undergraduates pay the same amount for the Program and Services, and Technology and Facilities fees as the Graduate students do, however they (undergraduates) pay extra for other amenities.
The main difference is found in the cost of credit hours. Graduates will pay on average $620-$733, while undergraduates pay $419-$495 per credit hour.
This can be explained because of the way that teachers schedule their classes per semester.
Students have a minimum and maximum amount of hours that they must take each semester and teachers must also fulfill a similar requirement.
Teachers have to do this each semester, with one undergraduate course being around 25% of their minimum for being a full-time teacher, and 33% being one graduate level course. The cost per class is rising because of the amount of time each teacher must spend on a class depending on the course level.
One other problem to look at is the availability of scholarships and loans that one might be able to get depending on if they are in the undergraduates or graduates program.
Graduate students are highly limited in what all financial help they can get from the school. They are largely limited to Federal subsidized loans, Graduate Assistant Programs and Access and Diversity Awards.
That is unless they plan on pursuing private loans, which is definitely not recommended unless absolutely necessary.
On the other hand, undergraduate students are able to get Federal loans, both subsidized and subsidized, the Tennessee Hope Scholarship and several other scholarships.
Overall, the breakdown of tuition fees is fair and just. If a graduate student breaks the norm, lives on campus and wants to have use of the gym or other amenities, they can pay a little extra to gain access to the school’s gym and so on.
However, since most graduate-level students are not on campus it is suffice to say that there is no real panic at the slight differences between tuition fees.
Though, UTM might need to revisit how many loan and scholarship opportunities that they have for their graduate students.
Photo Credit / University Relations
