Distance Education Fee

Scope

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Policy Statement

Tuition

Undergraduate Students

Resident undergraduate tuition for online students¹ will be assessed at the corresponding on-campus rates. However, with approval of the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (VP&CFO) in consultation with, as appropriate, the Executive Director of the Office of Online Education (OOE), the resident undergraduate online rate for joint programs offered by campuses with different on-campus rates for resident undergraduates may be set at an amount between the on-campus rates of the campuses with the highest and lowest rates.

Nonresident undergraduate tuition for online students¹ will be at least 30% higher than the corresponding on-campus resident rate.

Tuition assessed undergraduate online students¹ will be assessed by the credit hour regardless of credit hour load. Online undergraduate students must enroll in online classes² only in order to qualify for the online undergraduate tuition rate. A student who enrolls in any on-campus classes must be enrolled in an on-campus academic program. In cases of hardship or curriculum constraints an online student¹ may petition to take a class on campus while remaining in an online program. Each campus will designate the appropriate official(s) to consider such petitions. General guidance will be provided by the Office of Online Education.

Students enrolled in on-campus academic programs will be assessed on-campus tuition rates for all classes, including any online classes they may take.

Graduate and Professional Students

Graduate and professional tuition rates are set within the context of quality, competition and ranking, and markets. Rates for resident online students¹ may not be lower than corresponding on-campus rates. All tuition rates for graduate and professional programs that differ from corresponding on-campus rates will be reviewed and considered for approval for the VP&CFO, in consultation when appropriate with the Executive Director of OOE.

All Student Levels

All online student¹ tuition rates are subject to approval of the VP&CFO, to whom such authority has been delegated by the Trustees in order that rate approval will not be bound by the biennial fee approval schedule for on-campus tuition.

The VP&CFO will review all existing distance education fee rates approved under previous policies and may permit exceptions to this policy as appropriate.

In extraordinary cases, requests for exceptions to this policy must be directed to the VP&CFO for consideration and approval.

The VP&CFO will consult as appropriate with the Executive Director of OOE in decisions regarding the assessment of distance education course fees and when granting exceptions to this policy.

Distance Education Fee

All students, regardless of program or level, who enroll in classes coded as online education² will be assessed a distance education course fee as approved by the VP&CFO. The amount of this rate may vary by campus. Existing contract instruction agreements written before this policy statement may be permitted by the VP&CFO to forego charging this fee for the life of the agreement; however, future such agreements will include the assessment of this fee.

Other Mandatory Fees

Mandatory fees for repair and rehabilitation, for technology, and for student activities will be assessed according to the rules for assessment that apply to on-campus enrollment, regardless of the program the student is enrolled in. Unless otherwise approved through the administrative and course fee approval process, course and administrative fees will be assessed on classes taken by students enrolled in online programs.

¹An online student is one whose program is identified in the Student Information System as a fully-online program.

²Distance Education courses are defined in IU’s Student Information System, as defined in the document

"Definitions of Distance Education (Courses, Programs, and Students) for SIS Coding, Compliance Review and Reporting Credit Hour Allocations" by the following class codes:

OA [Online All] = 100% distance education

OI [Online Interactive] = 75 to 99% through distance education

OC [Online Correspondence] = all such courses are being phased out of IU’s distance education course inventory

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History

This policy was established on May 10, 2013 to be effective through July 1, 2015.

This policy was amended on June 1, 2015, to take effect July 1, 2015.

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