Cleveland.com features a study by three Ohio University alumni in a story headlined “College students will take more courses if they don’t have to pay extra, will graduate sooner.”
Samuel Kissinger ’16 earned a B.S. in Economics from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University. Robert Hammer ’17 earned a B.A. in Economics. David Holman ’16 earned a B.S. in Communication from eh Scripps College of Communication.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Public college students who pay the same tuition regardless of how many classes they take each semester graduate sooner than students at schools that charge per credit hour, according to an economic study.
“This investigation confirms the validity of the most fundamental of all economic principles: the Law of Demand,” wrote the authors of “An Investigation of Tuition Models Across the United States” for the Center of College Affordability and Productivity. “When the price of something falls, people buy more of it. When the marginal cost to the student of taking a course falls to zero, many students do it… From a broad societal perspective, allowing students the opportunity to take additional courses for ‘free’ increases four-year graduation rates, and increases the utilization of productive young human capital.”
The report was researched and written by David Holman, Samuel Kissinger and Robert Hammer, 2016 Ohio University graduates who worked with center CEO Richard Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics.
They examined three tuition models — charge per credit hour, one fixed fee regardless of how many hours taken and a tuition band, in which students pay per credit hour up to 12 hours then pay no additional cost for taking up to 18 or 20 credit hours.
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