While breathtaking aerial shots on university websites of verdant campuses may help to attract students, the lack of investment by the NH legislature over the years in higher education has led to sky-high tuition costs, despite tuition freezes, at the state’s colleges and universities, leading many students to head out of state for their education.
Policy experts and administrators say more state funding and collaboration with NH’s business community could help course correct that “brain drain” from the state.
The legislature responded this year with a 12% increase in funding for NH’s universities and colleges in the state’s $15.2 billion budget that was passed in June after months of back and forth between the House and Senate. Even with that increase, higher education is only 1.3% of the overall state budget.
The University System of NH (USNH)—which consists of the University of NH (UNH), Plymouth State University (PSU), Keene State College, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, UNH Manchester and the University College of Professional Studies (formerly Granite State College)—submitted a budget proposal of $95.2 million for 2024 and $104.2 million for 2025—totaling $199.4 million, says USNH Public Affairs Spokesperson Tom Cronin.
The legislature ended up approving $95 million in each of the two years along with $9 million in one-time support. “It wasn’t what we asked for originally, but it still gets us what we asked for,” Cronin says. The one time support includes $6 million for the renovation of the Whittemore Center Arena in Durham and $3 million to support Plymouth and Keene.
“They got that addition to the hockey arena and didn’t get everything for Keene and Plymouth; we said USNH should come up with funding for the rest of those projects, but they were taken care of,” says State Sen. James Gray, who is on the NH Senate Finance Committee, referring to a request to increase funding for financial aid for students attending Keene State College and Plymouth State University that was not funded. “It would be nice to provide more funding to attend schools in New Hampshire but where is the money going to come from? You tell me.”
Elliott Center houses Admissions, the Wellness Center, Student Academic Support Services and more at Keene State College. (Courtesy photo)
The push for such a large increase was to finally bring state investment in higher education back to pre-2012 levels when state funding for the university system was drastically cut in the wake of the recession from nearly $100 million to less than $50 million.
Despite such a deep cut, the state’s colleges and universities, which rely primarily on tuition to operate, managed to keep tuition relatively flat through early retirements and back-office reductions.
Cathy Provencher, chief administrative officer for USNH and former state treasurer, says USNH was pleased with the outcome of the budget for the upcoming biennium. “It is the largest dollar and percentage increase the system has received in over a decade,” she says, adding that while it’s not everything that was asked for, it’s a meaningful increase and will especially help Plymouth State University and Keene State College. “We’re thankful for the attention we received from the legislature this session. We worked hard to get the word out about the university system and wanted to educate the citizenry about the university system and the impact it has on the quality of all our lives in the state through higher ed, but also the research, outreach and the community work our faculty, staff and students do.”
Affordability Challenge Remains
However, state appropriations still made up less than 8% of USNH’s revenue sources in 2022 and keeping sticker prices down is a challenge, administrators say. Provencher points out that because of the low level of state support, state tuition is the highest in the nation among publicly funded higher educational institutions. In FY2021, tuition at UNH was $21,699 after financial aid, followed by Plymouth State University ($20,086), Keene State College ($19,627), and the former Granite State College ($11,615). The national average cost for public colleges and universities is approximately $10,000.
As a result, NH high school graduates who enter the public university system—the state’s largest pipeline of talent—face some of the highest average student debt in the nation. These factors, coupled with a highly competitive college market in the northeast, contribute to nearly 60% of NH high school graduates leaving the state each fall to attend college and eventually enter the workforce in other states.
Students on UNH campus. (Courtesy of Jeremy Gasowsk/University of New Hampshire)
According to a USNH quarterly status report from March 2023, based on National Center for Education Statistics, 56.4% of recent high school graduates in the state heading to four-year colleges went out of state in 2020. Of the remaining graduates heading to four-year colleges, 27.7% entered the USNH system and 15.9% headed to private colleges and universities.
USNH and BIA Make the Case
USNH enlisted help in its push to restore funding to pre-2012 levels. USNH partnered with the Business and Industry Association (BIA) of NH to highlight workforce challenges through its presentations to the Senate and House Finance Committees and to demonstrate important connections between USNH and the state’s business community.
“We spent a lot of time this year telling that story and showing what we could do with more support,” Cronin says. “We’re the largest generator of talent in the state because of the quality education our schools provide, and we have the ability to show people what it’s like to work in the state.”
Dave Juvet, the BIA’s senior vice president of public policy, says the BIA views NH’s university and community college systems as key pipelines for new talent, making increased funding for public higher education a top priority in almost every budget session. “The BIA has been concerned for many years that the level of state investment—in the university system especially— has made it difficult for them to provide in-state tuition that’s competitive with other New England national colleges and universities,” Juvet says. He notes the Community College System of NH (CCSNH), which consists of seven colleges around the state serving 21,000 students, has been more successful in past years with tying its efforts to workforce development and securing funding increases than USNH. “[CCSNH] seems to have a lot of champions in both the house and senate, and has been somewhat successful this year.”
NH’s Community College System
Indeed, CCSNH was successful enough to secure funding to roll out a new need-based financial assistance program for the 2023-24 academic year at all seven community colleges. The Promise Program will help NH students who qualify based on financial need to bridge the cost gap for tuition and required fees after scholarships and grants are applied.
CCSNH Chancellor Mark Rubinstein says community colleges serve as a pathway to four-year programs and that CCSNH has been building partnerships with high schools as well as USNH to create stronger workforce pipelines. He cites HB 1530, a bill passed in 2022 that goes into effect July 1, 2024, that will allow students from NH’s community colleges to transfer into the USNH’s four-year colleges.
CCSNH announced in late June that it will be freezing its tuition rate for the fifth consecutive year. In-state tuition will remain at $215 per credit, which equates to $6,450 for the school year for a full-time course load.
Chuck Lloyd, president of White Mountain Community College, says the state has been generous with CCSNH. “In a general sense, we rely on New Hampshire for our funding with 50 percent in state funding and closer to 60 percent for rural colleges,” he says, adding that tuition and fees, as well as grants and philanthropy make up the remainder of the budget.
When it comes to state funding, Rubinstein is pleased with the investments the state is making. “The state has continued to invest in our work and [funding] is always going to be a challenge in a state that is focused on how it manages its resources,” he says. “If we can capitalize on partnerships, we can make investments and do what we need to do. I’m grateful for what the state is providing.”
Changing Demographics
Provencher points to the dramatic 2012 budget slash as an example of how cuts in state appropriations can ripple through the system. “You could see then that New Hampshire resident enrollment dropped sharply,” she says. “There’s a correlation with tuition, but it also shows there is not support for the state system when you cut the money in half. It’s critical, in order to try to maintain more New Hampshire students, that we keep tuition flat.”
Provencher cites two reasons for keeping tuition flat. For one, she says, tuition is already high. And two, the demographics in NH are changing.
Projections over the next decade show there will be fewer students in NH’s K-12 system, according to Debby Scire, executive director of the NH College & University Council. “It’s a pretty serious problem,” Scire says.
From 2012 to 2022, K-12 enrollments were down 9.7%, according to NH Department of Education enrollment data, and the Chronicle of Higher Education’s August 2022 almanac projects that by 2031-2032 that number will decrease another 14%.
Being tucked into the middle of New England means there are more options for NH’s high school graduates, creating greater competition for NH’s schools, Provencher points out. “There are colleges on every street corner,” she says.
Another factor affecting enrollment is the perceived value of a college education by high school graduates and their families. “Society is questioning the value of a college degree. ‘Maybe I can be educated in a different way,’ some people are saying. It’s very important that we keep in-state tuition flat as long as we can, and we would love to drop it, but we need a lot more state support to do that,” Provencher says.
Students Filling the Funding Gap
Asked where the money comes from to keep tuition as low as possible, Provencher says, “the students.” Almost 70% of USNH’s revenue comes from its students and this is why tuition is high, she says, adding “We’re not alone. A lot of colleges and universities are tuition dependent.”
The net tuition revenue a college or university brings in is well below its sticker price, Provencher says. The intense competition in New England combined with a high number of students needing financial assistance, has led to USNH schools increasing financial aid, resulting in reductions in tuition. “The vast, vast, majority of students don’t pay the sticker price,” she says. “Financial aid reduces the sticker price and then reduces what we have available for operations.” USNH provides $200 million in financial aid annually.
Plymouth State University and Keene State College are small regional campuses feeling this revenue pinch more acutely than UNH, Provencher says, adding that more aid to both schools was requested during the budget process. “We are working on creating a sustainable future. And it’s super challenging work,” she says.
One way that USNH makes up the gap in state funding, according to Lisa Thorne, USNH director of communications, is through fundraising. Gifts and Investment income accounted for $40 million in revenue for FY22. “So much work happens on the fundraising side of things,” she says. “The amount of energy that has to go into making up the gap is intense and immense.”
USNH has also used cost cutting measures to fill the gap and keep tuition flat, Provencher says. Moody’s Investor Services noted in its November 2022 USNH credit opinion that USNH has a “strong financial cushion” and “demonstrates strong management credibility.”
Moving into the Future
Provencher says that while it is USNH’s job to get students to come to school in NH and to educate them, the responsibility also falls on the business community. “It takes everybody to keep students here, so they have options when they graduate,” she says.
In terms of graduation rates, Provencher says USNH is doing its job. For FY 21 NH had the highest graduation rate of all public New England colleges and universities—68.3%, for those seeking bachelors’ degrees over a six-year period. Maine had the lowest with 50.4%. New Hampshire also boasts one of the lowest student loan default rates in the northeast at 1.2%.
As policymakers grapple with workforce challenges, Gene Martin, executive director of the NH Fiscal Policy Institute, says people should think long-term about how to keep more students in the state. “I think one thing that was impactful this legislative session was that you had business leaders make the case that funding education is a workforce challenge,” Martin says, pointing out that NH spends about $106 per capita on average for higher education while states like Wyoming spend almost $600. “We need to increase the funding. If you just objectively look at losing close to 60% of our students to out-of-state schools that’s a problem,” he says.
Current Issue - April 2024