STARKVILLE, Miss.--A "tuition dividend" of more than $1 million is being distributed among Mississippi State's academic units this fall as a result of increased enrollment.
For the second year, 75 percent of new tuition revenue generated by enrollment growth--but not from tuition increases--is being returned to university teaching departments and colleges responsible for the larger student numbers.
MSU's 2007 fall headcount is a record 17,039, up 938 from two years ago.
"This process helps us to allocate resources in a way that is consistent with student demand and rewards departments that have been successful in helping boost enrollment, which is a key to institutional financial stability," President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong said Tuesday [Oct. 9].
"A top priority for use of the funds will be providing instructional support for the new students who generated the new revenue," he added.
Fall full-time-equivalent enrollment is up by more than 5 percent from the 2005 baseline, and the number of student credit hours being taught is up by 9 percent. Both categories of growth are reflected in a formula being used to distribute $1,057,697 this semester and next.
While academic units received a share of the new funds if they reported increases in FTE or student credit hours, they were not penalized for declines.
MSU departments receiving the biggest dividends included:
--Mathematics and statistics in the College of Arts and Sciences, $97,330,
--Kinesiology in the College of Education, $70,468; and
--Finance and economics in the College of Business and Industry, $55,502.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.
