Charter Oak State College will reduce student fees by 2.5%, while holding tuition flat, officials said.
The public online liberal-arts college based in New Britain will no longer charge all students a fee for summer programing, said Charter Oak President Ed Klonoski. The result is a $224 reduction in annual tuition and fees.
Charter Oak State College’s 2019 undergraduate tuition and fees are $8,301 for Connecticut residents and $10,854 for out of State students. The fee reduction changes those numbers to $8,077 and $10,630, respectively.
“My business theory on this is if we wanna succeed… we have to maintain a competitive cost structure,” said Klonoski, noting that other New England schools with a strong online presence, like Southern New Hampshire University, haven’t raised tuition in years.
Klonoski said keeping tuition and fees at current levels could allow CSCU students earn a bachelor’s degree for about the same price as an associate degree at a community college. The result is more college-educated Connecticut residents with less debt, he said.
“Our enrollment success is intertwined with our cost/quality mission. Plus, we have strong graduation rates and low student loan default rates,” Klonoski said. “These are all factors that we are constantly assessing to ensure our fiscal responsibility to our students, the College and the State.”
