Ideas about tuition fees at Friedensau Adventist University (FAU)
I want to test a new kind of decision making at FAU. I invite all lecturers and students to give their ideas and opinions to this topic. So far we have no results, but only ideas of the Chancellor. The Blog will be open by January 20, 2011. In the beginning of February the Board of FAU will discuss the developments of the tuition fees. I will bring in the ideas presented by you in the discussion section of this Blog.
Explanation: FAU charges tuition fees, it doesn’t get subsidies from the state. This income covers the whole budget to 9,3 %. If adding the fees for rent and food, the coverage is about 16,3 %.At other Adventist universities this coverage is about 70 - 80 %. This means, that FAU depends on subsidies of the Euro Africa Divison of the SDA Church (EUD) to a big extent. If considered other incomes (guest house, rents, etc.), the subsidy of EUD is about 60 %. Subsidies are donations and tithe from members of the Church in Germany and from the area of Euro-Africa-Division. In addition, the economic efficiency of FAU is weak.
Idea: The Chancellor is thinking about a medium-term (4 years) or a long-term (10 years) strategy to increase the tuition fees by about 50 % (see document PDF BlogTuitionFee1). It is the aim to reach the tuition fees of other western European SDA Colleges (see document).
Advantage: If the number of students will not decrease in case of the increase of tuition fees, the amount of coverage through tuition fees will rise significantly, and will get more opportunities. The dependance from subsidies will be reduced. So the future of FAU will be ensured for a long term.
Disadvantage: Because of the increase of tuition fees, it could be that the number of students will decrease.
The challenge is to improve the income in the area of tuition fees through alignment to the fees of other SDA schools in Europe, and simultaneously create a scholarship system, so that all students can carry the fees.
Other aspects can be: Different fees for B.A. and M.A., different fees for different studies, change of the scholarship system, offer of free places at FAU.
I am thankful for constructive ideas!
Roland Nickel
I want to test a new kind of decision making at FAU. I invite all lecturers and students to give their ideas and opinions to this topic. So far we have no results, but only ideas of the Chancellor. The Blog will be open by January 20, 2011. In the beginning of February the Board of FAU will discuss the developments of the tuition fees. I will bring in the ideas presented by you in the discussion section of this Blog.
If the fees increases here, it would be very difficult for an international student like me to survive here, since the exchange rate between Euro and my currency is very huge. One month expense here in Friedensau is more than what both my parents can earn together in a single month in India.If the fees were to increase, we would all need jobs on campus and this is a problem since I have been here for 4 months and still don't have a job and finances are very tight for me.
AntwortenLöschenSo please consider the big problem that International students like me face here and then accordingly something needs to be done.
Thanks a lot for listening and giving us the opportunity to make our voices heard.
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AntwortenLöschenIt is one of the major problem for International Student. I even could not manage my fee so far in the existed fee. My account is minus and need really more months for work to maintain it. For me this fee is already expensive and I could not think over increasing it. For me, I can not pay. For me there would be no other option left rather than leaving the study in middle if tuition is increased. I Hope, I will get some scholarship, work in campus and accomplish my study in time.
AntwortenLöschenThe Idea to increase fees is not bad but I think as this idea comes to mind, other factors should be considered. An increase in fees here in Friedensau, will mean an indirect way to force someone like me out of this school and making it very difficult for others like me to even think of coming to study in Friedensau.
AntwortenLöschenAs an international student, there were a lot of problems that i went through to even get here in to Friedensau and for some of us who are sponsoring our own education with no support from anyone, there is no way i can afford extra increment in fees, not when there is no assured student work for me on campus and no nearby town to even get something to do for some money to pay fees.
In my observation, the University should try to get more students rather because when the number of students increases, the school will in turn get enough money for the running of its activities.
Again, there should be an avenue for easy transportation in and out of Friedensau.
Let me however thank you for even giving us a voice and i hope my voice will be heard and considered with respect to this decision because i really want to finish my program in Friedensau and not a victim of dropout.
Thank you.
My suggestion is that to increase the money is not the best way to solve the financial problem of the university because instead of attracting more students in Friedensau you will be pushing them away. The best way (a balanced one) for the university as well as for its clients is to have a good number of students including international students (more clients, more money in a short time on the one hand and the higher cost or price, the less number of clints and less money of course on a short term basis on the other hand. As far as my own observation and experience are concerned, when you send documents to an international canditate to come here, the first comment he/she gives is that the academic fees and other living costs in Friedensau are higher than what they can afford. As Joseph says the Euro itself is higher than more other currencies in the world; thus, what Europeans think is affordable for them it is not the case for other people. With this the higher the living cost in Friedensau is, the less International students Friedensau will get and of course on the international market the behind the university stays. I would kindly like you to consider this because I always ask myself about how a more than 100 years old university like Friedensau can still struggle and survive with less than 200 students per year. Moreover, for us international students, it would be a big shame to go back home without our degrees. Blessings to Friedensau and Friedensauer
AntwortenLöschenWhile it is ture that every institution needs finance to sustain itself it is the people, in this case student enrollment that will garantee the future of this institution.
AntwortenLöschenSo I will suggest that instead of the focus for sustainability of Friedensau been increment of fees it will rather in in term of increasing student population, by using the meagre resources to present an attractive Friedensau(introducing other courses of study in Business for example like the MAISS). Increase in population means increase in income, economies of scale.
Also with increase student enrollment, more and better opportunities for scholarship, and a greater platform from which to negotiate assistance.
With increase popularity and increasing enrollment fees increment can be slowly and progressively applied.
Friendensau mean a comprehensive growth strategy and not just fees increment which already sight has the very really disadvantage of reducing further the student population, especially the international students.
Annette
I do not deny the fact that, the institution has a lot of financial obligations that must be fulfilled in order to ensure its sustainability, but i also think there are other possible options the school can consider which can be of tremendous help, such as making the institution attractive enough to encourage potential students to love to study here.
AntwortenLöschenIncreasing the school fees might do more harm than good especially, for most international students who struggle throughout their programs with financial difficulties.
I believe that the increase of the money is not the ultimate solution to the financial problems of Friedensau. Rather, I look at it as an obstacle to canditate students in the future. The principle is that the more students, the more money and the less students the less money. Therefore, in a wise way it is good to attract as many students as possible. The experience showed me that when you recruite an international student, he or she looks at the the financial statements and ends up giving up. Focus on marketing of the university so that in the future years it may have a good number of students. It is not easy to understand how a 100 years old university has less than 200 students. If there is an increase of money without an increase of scholarships, it is likely that the university will have less students than today which is not good on the financial matters of the university. new programmes (BA, MA) in English would help in this respect as well. On the other hand, for us International student if there is an increase of fees, it may be hard to finish our studies; thus it is a very big shame to go back home without the harvest of our efforts...Thanks
AntwortenLöschenI see two problems at FAU:
AntwortenLöschen- One that has been mentioned several times is the small number of students, and efforts should be made to increase the appeal of the university so that more students (Germans and Internationals) should be interested in coming here. I specially think that a lot of advertisement should be done for the ACA program, in Collonges (France) and Sagunto (Spain) they usually have more than 50 ACA students per semester, and here there are only 3, mostly because nobody knows Friedensau exists.
Two- is the lack of opportunities for employment. I don't mean campus employment, since that wouldn't help the school financially at all. I mean opportunities for employment outside of campus, which would mean bringing outside money in. The transportation system is partly to blame for that. But maybe if there were a possibility to bring/create new stores, a bakery, a cafe, something where the students could work, and that other students could benefit from as well, that would be a great improvement for Friedensau.
I think inceasing the school fees will be a big problem for students in general and international students in particular.
AntwortenLöschenMy advice is that the university should design some various services and projects that can be sources of funds to the university.For example,I come from Africa, if I do some paper or research on my country, the university can publish those educative papers as booklets and can even be translated for the target local language, and may be sold.This applies especially for Masters papers.
The university also can make a study on anything that can be sold out to other universities, parents, students.Those contributions even if small can be helpful.
Furthermore, I think the international students are a resource that may have been underutilized. The University should utilize the diversity that she is enjoying in the state. For example the university can plan some seasonal African, or Asian traditional shows at the towns and cities, and publish some booklets.
In some yearly mission and trips for example to African or Asia, the university can plan to make them productive by making some fundraising from some interested individual or organisations.When there is a plan for reporting it might motivate more support.
I pray so that God may uplift Friedensau as His institution for His glory.
L. Kibasisi
I would like to appreciate the efforts and various activities being done to ensure financial sustainability of FAU and thank you for the chance given to comment on the strategy.
AntwortenLöschenI understand the burden for the church when an institution is not financially self supportive.
For me it is not easy to be optimistic since in most cases increasing tuition fee and number of students have negative relationship. Taking other Adventist universities as benchmark also need careful study (administrative costs, number of faculties, types of courses they offer, Quality, location, competitors, and others). This is because the overall education system of Germany has influence on the overall performance of FAU as well. FAU is competing with public universities and these universities charge not such significant amount of tuition fee when compared to other private educational institutions. Among the unique characteristics of FAU, low tuition fee (compared to other private institutions) is the one that attracts students to come from all over the world. Keeping administrative costs constant and increasing tuition fee on students may have negative impact on FAU. Most likely number of international students will decrease.
I would like to suggest the following options: opening new fields of studies so that prospective students will have options to choose FAU according to their interests, secondly with/without increasing tuition fees, considering ways of full integration with the scholarship foundations and finally look for other options to establish other income generating activities
There is Public Relations department in Friedensau. Since current students constituted the main internal "target audience" and a major "contact group". Those working in that department must know, for a very long time in advance, all these comments expressed here by students.
AntwortenLöschenDear Chancellor,
AntwortenLöschenFirst of all, I congratulate you for thinking about FAU finances. A good manager has always to balance his accounts and think of ways through which the institution's finances can be strong.
At the same time, I understand that there are many ways through which savings can be made. At Friedensau, I would rather suggest two other options. One, finding ways to increase enrolment. Two, reducing operating costs for the university.
Though fee increment may be unavoidable at some points, a 10% increase each year is much. I would rather go for a 2% increment. Otherwise, warning letters will be too many, students will run away, we will fail to encourage other potential candidates to come and join us at Friedensau.
In brief, I call for restraint and deep thinking in order to avoid any hasty decision that could be harmful not only for the university but also for students.