To be clear, I would welcome more students expressing an interest in Mandarin and Arabic, or rhetoric, or Middle Eastern studies, East Asian studies, or history and philosophy of science & technology, or peace studies/dispute resolution, or any number of issues that might seem more relevant to students than Classics or romance languages (though Spanish seems to be an area of high-need). It’s not that students need to be stuck in the fields that previous generations studied. It just seems that fields of possible study have been narrowed significantly, which saddens me. And I understand the concept that if students won’t take certain courses that faculty need to be cut; I am a pragmatist in that respect. It’s just disheartening to me is all.
But as this topic is supposed to be about Miami and how it intends to deal with about a $36M budget deficit, I will move on to this quote from the article:
Mullenix said Miami’s revenue is affected by multiple factors: a shrinking pool of college-aged people, competition among Ohio universities, fewer international students coming to the United States, increased price sensitivity after the pandemic and a lack of faith in higher education.
Ohio really does have some amazing in-state options. A search on College Navigator for 4-year Ohio publics that offer a Bachelor’s degree pulled up 41 options. Some of those are clearly community colleges, though.
But there’s these which I think are probably 4-year colleges:
- Bowling Green-branch campus
- Bowling Green-main campus
- Central State
- Clark State
- Cleveland State
- Kent State - 7 branch campuses
- Kent State - main campus
- Miami - 2 branch campuses
- Miami - main campus
- North Central State
- Ohio State - 4 branch campuses
- Ohio State - main campus
- Ohio U. - 5 branch campuses
- Ohio U. - main campus
- Shawnee State
- U. of Akron
- U. of Cincinnati - 2 branch campuses
- U. of Cincinnati - main campus
- U. of Toledo
- Wright State-branch campus
- Wright State-main campus
- Youngstown State
- Zane State
I don’t know how many of the branch campuses are really glorified community colleges where everyone moves to the main campus after the first 2 years. And I don’t think that Miami U. is really competing with most of these schools (though Ohio State, Ohio U., and U. of Cincinnati probably do give it lots of competition). But it seems as though Ohio may also have a higher education reckoning to do in the near future.
Additionally, Miami’s tuition is significantly higher than many of fellow Ohio public competitors.
- Miami: In-state $15,555, OOS $35,667
- Ohio State: In-state $12,485, OOS $36,722
- Ohio U.: In-state $13,352, OOS $23,720
- U. of Cincinnati: In-state $13,176, OOS $28,540
Perhaps Miami might consider a price reset, at least for is OOS fees, or a more clear-cut scholarship table of stats to merit award, because its OOS sticker price might turn away many families who would otherwise consider it.