Friday, March 16, 2012KENT, Ohio -- Trustees of Kent State University have approved a 3.5% increase in undergraduate and graduate tuition at the university's eight campuses. Also approved at a recent meeting were establishment of a College of Podiatric Medicine and northeastern Ohio's first bachelor's degree in insurance to be initially offered at the Salem campus.
The tuition increase is in keeping with a state-mandated limit on undergraduate tuition increases for the 2012-2013 academic year, officials said. Effective fall semester 2012, undergraduate tuition for students at the Kent Campus will increase $163 per semester (from $4,673 to $4,836). Graduate tuition will increase $174 per semester (from $4,971 to $5,145).
There is no change in the surcharge for out-of-state students. Special non-resident rates offered to students from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia attending the seven regional campuses remain in effect, giving students from those areas an 80% reduction in the non-resident surcharge rate.
The KSU Board also created northeastern Ohio’s first bachelor’s degree in insurance, effective fall semester 2012. The new degree program, which will be offered initially at Kent State University at Salem and administered through the university’s Regional College, will address all the needs of professional insurance practitioners. Students in the program will graduate with high-level communication, technical, leadership and project-management skills that allow them to secure jobs in the insurance industry.
Kent State’s market analysis found that annual employment for Ohio’s finance and insurance industry is expected to create about 16,900 positions in the industry from 2006 through 2016.
As the number of Americans who are diabetic and severely overweight increases, the demand for podiatrists will grow substantially, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To provide students with new career opportunities in podiatry and to ensure that Ohio’s need for podiatrists will be met in the decades to come, trustees established the Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine. The action brings the university closer to finalizing its friendly acquisition of the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. The board of that college is expected to act upon the acquisition later this month.
Pending approval from the Ohio Board of Regents, the Higher Learning Commission and the Council on Podiatric Medicine, the Kent college will be the only podiatric college associated with a state university. The college will remain at the current College of Podiatric Medicine location in Independence, which will be considered a Kent State campus. The college will offer approximately 60 courses leading to the doctor of podiatric medicine degree.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.