SYS 130 Appendix B: Service-Based Pricing Guidelines and Procedures

Definitions

Nontraditional Students are defined as in SYS 130 Appendix A, Section F

Service-Based Pricing

Service-based pricing can apply to nontraditional programs for credit.

Programs can be:

  • Certificate or degree programs. Programs are defined as a series of courses leading to a certificate or degree.
  • Individual courses or a series of courses designed to provide students with a specific set of competencies, including those designed for and delivered to a specific business
  • Delivered on or off site.

Traditional students who are taking one of the above categories of program also would be subject to service-based pricing.

Guidelines
  1. The program is designed primarily for nontraditional students and meets one or more of these seven criteria:
    1. Offers flexible scheduling packages
    2. Offers flexible course delivery options
    3. Provides ancillary services such as evening or weekend services (academic advising, registration, financial aid, etc.), program specific career advising, free or dedicated parking, book delivery services, etc.
    4. Implements degree completion programs
    5. Provides more geographic dispersion
    6. Works with area employers to develop programs to meet training needs
    7. Provides Certificate and customized graduate degree programs
  2. Information about the market and competitive pricing is submitted by UW Extended Campus or the UW institution as part of the approval process.
  3. The program is priced to take into account fixed and variable costs, future enrollments and frequency of offerings, recognizing new and additional program cost implications.
  4. As with other program revenue courses, Service-Based Pricing programs will be responsible for the cost of fringe benefits.
  5. Tuition for all students taking these courses will be charged outside the credit plateau, at the service pricing rate. However, in the case where currently enrolled degree seeking students are taking some of these courses as part of their regular degree program, the chancellor may waive this principle and charge within the credit plateau.
  6. These courses/programs are presumed to be offering additional and dedicated services to their adult students.
  7. Courses which are part of a service-based program will not be open to student auditors.
Procedures

To facilitate timely program response to the adult market, the approval process will proceed on an accelerated basis.

  1. Institutions should submit all associated materials to the President no less than two months before the proposed rate is scheduled to go into effect.
  2. The proposal will be reviewed for compliance with above guidelines and other pertinent Regent and administrative policies.
  3. The President will provide written action within one month, after staff review.
  4. Once a program has an approved Service-Based Pricing rate, it does not need re-approval from the President for regular future rate increases which are at or below the percentage increase for the relevant regular graduate or undergraduate rate. The rate increase should simply be submitted as part of the annual budget process to the UW System Office of Budget & Planning.
  5. If the rate increase in any year after initial approval is higher than the relevant regular graduate or undergraduate rate, itemization of the rationale within the above guidelines on costs and market will be sent to the President for approval.