FARGO -- The University of North Dakota is undercharging for online classes and has a competitive advantage over other schools in the system, an administrator says.
Rich Brauhn, vice president for student affairs at Dickinson State University, wants UND's practice of charging less for online classes reviewed.
Other schools in the system charge similar rates for online classes as they do for on-campus courses, Brauhn said.
"It puts the University of North Dakota at a great price advantage in terms of undercutting the price for everybody else," he said.
At Dickinson State, Brauhn has noticed students taking cheaper general education courses through UND online instead of on campus.
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"Are we going to get into a pricing war situation?" Brauhn said.
Josh Riedy, UND's associate vice president for outreach services, said it's a positive thing that UND makes correspondence courses accessible with lower tuition.
UND charges $120 per credit for correspondence classes, $90 less per credit than the charge for traditional courses.
The North Dakota University System chancellor approved the rate for online courses in May 2006, Riedy said.
Prior to that, UND charged $105 a credit for online and correspondence courses.
UND offers 90 correspondence courses, with a little more than half offered online, Riedy said. The majority are general education courses, he said.
This fall, 479 students are enrolled in correspondence courses at UND. Last academic year, correspondence enrollment was 2,321 students.
Haylee Cripe, a UND student and president of the North Dakota Student Association, said students are more likely to take online classes because of schedule conflicts, not because of price.
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"I don't think a low price gives UND a competitive advantage," Cripe said. "It gives students more opportunities."
Bob Boyd, UND's vice president for student and outreach services, said the university looks nationally when setting online tuition. Rates at some other state universities range from $73 to $203 a credit, he said.
"To some degree, it's not competition here in the state," Boyd said. "It's competition with other institutions around the nation that for some of our programs becomes very important."
The chancellor's office plans to review tuition pricing and the process of approving different rates for correspondence courses, said Michel Hillman, vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.
"This raises some very important policy issues that I think we will want to consider before we make some recommendations," Hillman said.
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