Complaint Review: Florida International University

I attended Florida International University as a graduate student in the 2012 - 2013 academic year. Three months after students affirmed they would enroll, students were informed they would have to pay a fee per credit of $230.00, above and beyond the normal rate of graduate in-state tuition of $422.16 per credit. This added $690.00 to the cost of each course, and approximately $13,800.00 to the total cost of the program.

The first issue that concerned me was the lack of direct disclosure of this fee to students. There was a chart in the webpages of the department that showed the fee, but the chart was not prominently dispalyed and was difficult to locate. Three other sources on FIU's website - the Graduate Catalog page, the Financial Aid page, and the Office of the Bursar page showed the standard rate of graduate tuition, but made no mention that particular departments may charge a variant rate of tuition or a fee of a substantial amount in addition to the standard rate. So, for any student in the program who did not happen to view the chart in the department webpages would have no idea that the program would cost an additional $13,800.00 at minimum.

When I began to inquire about the purpose of the fee, the department chair could not tell me its purpose, but said that "without the fee, the program will be shut down."  My inquiries led me to a meeting with an administrator in the Office of the Provost. She told me that in 2008, with a shortage in state support for such programs, the program was moved into continuing education in order to charge students a fee to keep the program operational. Continuing education programs are administered on the university level, whereas any changes in tuition or fees in regular programs require approval from the Board of Governors (state level).  

There are several reasons why an existing regular program may not be supplanted by a continuing education program, which involves too much detail to explain here. In the course of my inquiries, I also discovered that the fee was never brought before FIU's Board of Trustees, which was a requirement. So, the explanation that the program was moved into continuing education to charge the fee is invalid, and the fact that the charging of the fee was never approved by the Board of Trustees also invalidates it, yet it has been charged to students (and deducted from student loans) for several years preceding and including the 2012 -2013 academic year.

It is my belief that if this fee, costing students in the program I attended at least $13,800.00 more than the normal rate of graduate tuition, was not legally and procedurally correct in its assessment and "approval," then students should not have been charged it.

Incidentally, the other state universities in Florida that offer the same program do not charge any such fee (and do not have any tuition/fee chart on their webpages). In programs where fees were applied, it did not exceed $600.00 over the entire program.

After not receiving adequate answers from FIU administrators, I filed a formal complaint with the Board of Governors. After one month I received a letter from the BOG General Counsel.  In short, the letter acknowledged that the program was approved not as a continuing education program, that the fee was never brought before the FIU Board of Trustees (which would have been required), and that the regulation used to justify the fee was outmoded. However, the Board of Governors defended FIU's charging of the fee, nonetheless.

A proper accountng of this situation is very detailed and complex. Given this format, I have tried to explain it as succinctly as possible. If anyone is interested, I have a paper that is much more comprehensive. Thank you for your time.