TC, Columbia Play the Tuition Numbers Game

Although many Columbia and Barnard undergraduates cross-enroll in Teachers College courses, the financial mechanisms behind the process are more complicated than the far more common exchange between the undergraduate schools.

When one of their students registers for a TC course, Barnard and Columbia add the fee to their own established tuition and later pay Teachers College the difference—a process that works in much the same way for Teachers College students taking courses at other schools.

“If a TC student cross-registers for a course at the University,” TC Vice Provost William Baldwin explained, “the tuition charge that the student is assessed depends on the per credit rate established by the University for that school.”

An agreement made between the University and Teachers College in 1965 continues to provide the basic framework for cross-registration between the schools. According to this plan, the funds owed for “import” classes and “export” classes between Teachers College and the University were calculated each term, and the institution owing more paid the difference. This system was eventually amended to allow the exporting school to pay only 30 cents on the dollar of the amount owed—a plan administrators believed more accurately reflected the bottom-line effects on teaching costs.

“An alternative arrangement was reached that more accurately reflected the marginal cost of instruction,” Baldwin wrote in an e-mail explaining the smaller-scale process that now occurs each term. “If ... CU students purchased $450,000 worth of courses at TC, and TC students purchased $300,000 worth of courses within the University, the University would pay the College $50,000 (not $150,000).”

This cross-registration system is more complicated than that between Barnard and Columbia—a fact that reflects the closer relationship between the two undergraduate schools. In Barnard-Columbia exchanges, Barnard Registrar Constance Brown wrote in an e-mail, “the amount of money exchanged is pre-set in the inter-corporate agreement; it does not vary from year to year based on the fluctuations each year.”

Part of the issue is that Barnard and TC also differ in the methods by which their students pay tuition. While Barnard women pay a flat tuition rate on top of which the cost of a TC course may be added, TC students pay per credit at a current rate of $1,030 per point. Since not everyone registers for the same number of points, TC sees greater variation among students in terms of how much tuition is actually paid per semester. A blanket intercorporate exchange, many say, would therefore be impractical.

“Teachers College is a graduate professional training school,” Columbia College Associate Dean of Academics Hazel May explained, “and as such its classes are not tailored to an undergraduate student body.”

nora.christiani@columbiaspectator.com