(The Center Square) – The president at the University of Wisconsin is defending the school’s recent 5% tuition hike as necessary to win the “war for talent.”
President Jay Rothman told a crowd at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee’s meeting on Tuesday that raising tuition will help get students the tools they need for new careers.
“In order to fulfill our educational mission, to stay competitive, to meet workforce demands, we must have safe and state of the art facilities,” Rothman explained.
UW Regents last week approved a 5% tuition increase for the university’s 13 campuses. Almost all will go toward pay raises for university employees.
Rothman later explained that Wisconsin must produce more engineers, nurses, teachers, data scientists and business people.
“To the extent that those jobs that aren’t being filled can be moved, they will by necessity be moved out of the state of Wisconsin. And once they are moved, they won’t be coming back,” Rothman said.
Rothman is pitching a strategic plan that would increase UW graduations by 10% over the next five years.
“If we’re going to win the ‘war for talent,’ it is critical that we achieve two goals,” Rothman said. “One is that we have to continue to deliver a high-quality, UW education in a financially-stable manner. And two is we have to ensure that that education is both accessible and affordable.”
Tuition at UW-Madison, the state’s largest campus, is currently just under $11,000 per year. The tuition hike will push that above $11,000 starting next fall.
Tuition at Wisconsin’s other campuses currently range from a little over $6,000 at schools like UW-Platteville and UW-Parkside, to just over $9.500 at UW-Milwaukee.
Even with the 5% tuition increase, Rothman insisted that UW schools are very affordable.
“We did a survey last summer. And not surprisingly that survey indicated that we were the most affordable university in the Midwest. And I would argue even beyond that,” Rothman said.
To drive home that message, Rothman said universities need to convince young people that a college degree is worth the cost.
“The Wall Street Journal disclosed the results of a poll it conducted on the perceived value of a college education,” Rothman said. “Only 42% of respondents thought the value was there. That’s down from 53% 10 years ago. Think about that. Only 42% of the respondents thought going to college was worth it. I find that result, frankly, scary.”
