Will College and Universities Refund Student's Tuition because of Coronavirus?
Matty-Sways
As the pandemic is slowing down the world many colleges are not only shutting down living and dining facilities, but in some cases are missing out on millions in possible revenue from all the athletic events that have been canceled due to the mandatory quarantine. To make up for the lack of in class education many schools have started to look towards remote instruction. Many can't help but ask is this the college experience I was promised and can I get a refund.
A lot of students and parents in the U.S. already on average have difficulty paying for college and their loans. A public, four-year college averages tuition was $3,870 for 2019/2020, with room and board totaling around $11,510. As for private schools, it bumped up to $14,380 and $12,990, respectively. “Many families are losing income now and may need the money. But colleges need the money, too,” said Robert Kelchen, an associate professor of higher education at Seton Hall University. “They don’t have the kind of operating margin that lets them refund a couple of million dollars in the short term.”
Some schools such as Stanford University, have shut down everything and now only hold online classes. They have promised to refund housing and dining costs for the spring semester for students who have left campus. However, some schools such as Harvard and Ohio State will only give back a portion of room and board. Jessica de la Paz, a senior at Stanford said that, “It doesn’t seem fair to me to pay for an education that I’m not receiving, it seems very opaque right now, what my money is going towards.”
