Examining the Effects of Differential Tuition Policies on Bachelor’s Degree Completions - Article

Oct 15, 2026

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Examining how differential tuition policies adopted by many public universities influence bachelor’s degree completions across business, engineering, and nursing, with special attention to racially minoritized students. Using a first comprehensive dataset covering nearly all public universities over two decades and event study techniques, the study finds differential tuition modestly increases engineering degrees awarded. Results also show white students tend to benefit more than other racial/ethnic groups, indicating distributional equity concerns in tuition-based pricing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

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Examining the Effects of Differential Tuition Policies on Bachelor’s Degree Completions

Differential tuition policies and student major choice

Prior research and the study’s contributions

Research questions and theoretical framework

AERA Open January-December 2025, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1–14 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584251338155 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2025. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Examining the Effects of Differential Tuition Policies on Bachelor’s Degree Completions Robert Kelchen University of Tennessee, Knoxville Many public universities have adopted differential tuition policies that charge higher prices for academic majors that are in high demand from students and/or are expensive to operate. I compiled the first comprehensive dataset of differential tuition policies across virtually all public universities over the last two decades to examine the effects on degree completions in business, engineering, and nursing with a focus on racially minoritized groups. Using event study techniques, I found that differential tuition modestly increased the number of engineering degrees awarded and that white students tended to benefit more than other racial/ethnic groups from differential tuition across all three fields of study. Keywords: College affordability, differential tuition, educational policy, finance, higher education, higher education finance, policy, policy analysis, postsecondary education, quasi-experimental analysis, regression analyses, secondary data analysis Students enrolling in public universities frequently face tuition charges that vary based on their field of study. This practice of differential tuition involves charging higher tuition prices for majors that are popular and/or costly to operate, such as nursing, engineering, and business (Hemeltet al., 2021; Kim & Stange, 2016) . The most recent estimate is that 60% of public research universities in the United States used differential tuition in 2015–2016 (Nelson et al., 2017), although prior research has found that differential tuition also exists at less-selective public universities (Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, 2012) . The most common rationale given for offering differential tuition is that by charging higher tuition rates, colleges can expand programs to accommodate more students and provide additional supports to help students succeed. As a result, differential tuition policies have the potential of increasing the access of students, particularly those from racially minoritized groups, to programs with high earnings that have traditionally enrolled a less diverse student body (Carnevale et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2024) . On the other hand, differential tuition policies have the potential to induce students to choose majors without differentials in an effort to reduce the price of their education. Research has found that students are sensitive to tuition increases (Hemelt & Marcotte, 2011), and minority students tend to be more sensitive to tuition increases than white students (Allen & Wolniak, 2019) . The one national study examining differential tuition policies was by Stange (2015), who used data through 2007– 2008 for the share of degrees awarded in business, engineering, and nursing at public research universities. He found that differential tuition increased the share of degrees awarded in nursing and decreased the engineering share, with Black students being particularly affected. Several studies focused on Texas, which allowed differential tuition through a tuition deregulation policy beginning in 2003 that included a set-aside for financial aid. Research has found an increase in enrollment of students from low-income families in fields with high earnings following the adoption of differential tuition (Andrews & Stange, 2019), with universities serving more lower-income students setting smaller price increases (Kim & Stange, 2016) . In this research, I build upon prior research on the effects of differential tuition policies in three main ways. First, I compiled a

FAQs

What is the core research question of the study?

It asks whether differential tuition policies affect the share and number of total graduates in business, engineering, and nursing, and how these effects vary by race/ethnicity.

What dataset and method does the study use?

It compiles a comprehensive dataset of differential tuition policies across virtually all public universities over the last two decades and applies event study techniques.

What are the main findings regarding degree completions?

Differential tuition modestly increases engineering degrees awarded, while white students tend to benefit more than other racial/ethnic groups across all three fields.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Pentious