With Gov. Rick Scott’s push to keep tuition low, his “Finish in Four” plan would keep the price the same throughout students’ first four years of college.
“Finish In Four” is an incentive for students to graduate in four years to take advantage of the guaranteed tuition rate. The plan would begin for students entering a state university in the upcoming Fall semester.
Chris Moran, director of communications for the Office of University Relations, said he did not know if this plan would include current students at UF.
According to Scott’s 2013-2014 budget, students who entered college in the 2009-2010 Fall semester have seen tuition rise an average of 13 percent each year. With this proposal, students and families could budget the cost of higher education more effectively.
Moran said the university is still waiting on further details, but UF has always encouraged students to finish in four years.
“We don’t know enough to say yet whether we think it will work,” he said. “It’s interesting and worthy of discussion — we all want students to graduate on time.”
The university could also extend the plan for degrees that may take longer than four years to complete.
In the last 10 years, UF has gone from less than 50 percent of students graduating in four years to about 65 percent, he said.
“Our response up to now has been to give students support to help them succeed,” he said. “I don’t know if the administration has decided it’s another tool that we would be interested in or not.”
Moran said this could also free up space in the university for other students.
Melissa Hill, an 18-year-old UF exploratory freshman, said this won’t push her to graduate on time.
She said she would rather spend the extra money on a fifth year to find a degree that makes her happy than graduate on time with a degree she doesn’t love.
Nikki Gregory, an 18-year-old UF animal sciences freshman, said she’s motivated to graduate on time and does not need the extra incentive.
“But it’s nice to know it’s there,” she said.
Contact Alexa Volland at avolland@alligator.org.
