“Students all across Ohio have heard about the state’s new ideas to transform the higher education system backed by Education Chancellor Eric Fingerhut’s plan. Fingerhut spent time with various students at the University of Akron Friday to discuss his master plan and his future plans for the state, universities and students.”
“

Students all across Ohio have heard about the state’s new ideas to transform the higher education system backed by Education Chancellor Eric Fingerhut’s plan.

Fingerhut spent time with various students at the University of Akron Friday to discuss his master plan and his future plans for the state, universities and students.

Raising education attainment for Ohio’s students, rising tuition and competition among universities and new programs, seniors to sophomore and dual admittance are all programs on the agenda according to Fingerhut.

Fingerhut, who hopes to make Ohio a magnet to future students and businesses, said that the tuition freeze in effect currently, can no longer continue. However he added UA is worth the money.

Akron is one of the best values in higher education, Fingerhut said to a room full of UA students.

The end of the freeze is something that is planned for the entire state of Ohio.

We need to show you that this is affordable for you, Fingerhut said.

Fingerhut said he plans to find this mix of quality education and low prices by allowing universities across the state to set their tuition based on their level of financial aid.

This flexibility comes with parameters just like anything else.

One (parameter) is that it has to remain affordable for students, Fingerhut said. Schools are going to have to show us what the impact of their tuition level is on students at different income levels.

As the chancellor put it, if a school wanted to raise tuition of a certain program, they would then be obliged to raise financial aid as well, keeping it affordable for students.

He also touched on the idea of offering discounts for summer, evening and weekend classes for students. He said it would utilize resources better and help give other students a break on cost.

Not all campuses are equally busy at all times, he said. I have been on a lot of campuses on Friday afternoons and there are a lot of empty classrooms.

All of these ideas go back to his hope of attracting more students to Ohio. However his plan does go beyond Ohio’s education, his goal is to keep students here after graduation.

It’s not good enough to keep people here, we have to be a magnet, Fingerhut said. The place where people want to move to.

He admitted that while we cannot keep every single graduate in the state, Ohio does need to import more students than those who are leaving in order to have a successful economy accompany the education program.

In the old days we would think what makes Ohio prosperous? Fingerhut said. Today what we really understand is it’s about a talented workforce. People with high levels of education attract businesses here and they help grow and create jobs.

Ohio is unique compared to most other states because it has 13 public universities and 23 community colleges. Each of these institutions compete with each other to get students for the same programs. Fingerhut said he has a plan for this issue too.

Fingerhut said he plans to create centers of excellence at each university.

Each university has to have a center of excellence that is nationally or internationally recognized, he said. Centers of excellence should not be competitive with other centers of excellence in Ohio.

The example he gave was that of the University of Akron and the polymer program.

Akron and Cleveland State should not be competing against each other for faculty and staff for polymer research, that would be completely wasteful from the standpoint of Ohio, Fingerhut said.

Other plans Fingerhut hopes to improve upon include the Seniors to Sophomore Program, which is essentially a marketing strategy for the post-secondary programs offered by high schools.

Another program is the dual admittance program, which allows a student to be accepted to a community college and a university at the same time. Fingerhut said this will help many students who earn an associates degree at a community college and then transfer over to a four-year university in order help cut down on the costs of higher education.

UA president Luis Proenza also attended the luncheon Friday. He said he believes Fingerhut’s plan will be beneficial for both UA and the rest of Ohio’s schools.

I feel the ideas of the chancellor already reflect the path that we have been moving on for 138 years, Proenza said. I’m very optimistic and I see a bright future for the University of Akron.

Proenza said his personal hope for UA through Ohio’s new education plan is to let UA grow.

I think the university will have about 30 thousand students and we will grow from about 50 million dollars in research to about 200 to 250 million dollars annually, he said. The university will see itself in the top 20 or top 10 rankings in several disciplines.

“