Several presidents of Oklahoma colleges and universities urged state lawmakers on Wednesday to adopt policies to make the state’s higher education institutions more competitive.
Higher Education Chancellor Allison Garrett and five presidents of Oklahoma higher education institutions spoke to lawmakers at the Capitol during an interim study about how the state’s colleges and universities can “maintain a competitive edge.”
Garrett offered the legislators a handful of recommendations, including greater flexibility for institutions to waive in-state and out-of-state tuition, increased funding for marketing initiatives and expanding the Oklahoma Opportunity Scholarship to include higher education institutions.
Garrett said that Oklahoma high school graduates are choosing to attend out-of-state institutions due to cost, proximity and degree programs. She said the states that admit the most Oklahoma students are Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Colorado.
She said around 34% of Oklahoma high school graduates attended a public institution for higher education in the state. About 58% did not attend college. Almost 6% went to an out-of-state school and just over 2% attended private institutions.
Presidents of institutions near the Oklahoma border spoke of initiatives they have implemented as well as those they hope to implement in order to compete with nearby out-of-state institutions.
Julie Dinger, president of Oklahoma Panhandle State University, said high schoolers in the area, including her own daughter, are targeted by marketing from out-of-state schools. She said some of these schools are able to waive out-of-state tuition rates or price match on tuition.
“We’ve got to have something that gives us that competitive advantage so we can keep Oklahomans in Oklahoma,” she said. “The Panhandle region, just like all of rural Oklahoma, suffers from brain drain. We don’t want to send our kids to Oklahoma City for school … We want to keep our kids in our region, so that they settle down in our region. We want the doctors, the lawyers, the nurses, the teachers, to come through our doors so that they put down roots in our community. It’s the only way we’re going to survive into the next 115 years.”
Other leaders of higher education institutions echoed the message.
All expressed a need to continue keeping tuition and fees low for students to make pursuing higher education affordable, whether through waiving some tuition costs or expanding eligibility for Oklahoma Promise, a scholarship program offering qualified low-income students an opportunity to earn a scholarship for college tuition.
Diana Lovell, president of Southwestern Oklahoma State University, said her school, while not near the Oklahoma border, has been able to stay competitive with other institutions by keeping tuition low.
“SWOSU has in-state tuition plus $1 as our legal tuition,” she said. “What that means is if you’re from a different country, or you are from Kansas or from New Jersey, you only pay $1 over the legal tuition … I’m not located right on the border, but it has been very helpful to be able to advertise that. For instance, our international students are up about 33%.”
Thomas Newsom, president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, said his university has embraced online education to draw greater enrollment and that Southeastern Oklahoma State University has hit a record enrollment of 6,000 students for this fall.
“I say this jokingly, but our students tend to either fall in love with Oklahoma or fall in love with somebody in Oklahoma,” Newsom said of keeping students in the state after graduation.
According to a report from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, most graduates of Oklahoma’s public universities and colleges remain in the state and enter the workforce.
The interim studies are meant to inform lawmakers ahead of the next legislative session on topics of interest and can influence legislation proposed.
This story is from nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Voice.