Med School Bucks Tuition Trend | Business ventures help keep UMass Med tuition at $8,352 per year
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UMass Medical School in Worcester has one of the lowest tuition rates in the nation.
While college tuition prices throughout the nation continue to shock students and parents as they reach closer to — and sometimes above $50,000 per year — the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester has managed to keep its rate at just $8,352 per year for the last 10 years.
So, what is UMass Medical doing right that allows it to be such a bargain, especially considering that the national average tuition for a public medical school exceeds $18,000?
Terence Flotte, dean of UMass Med, said the school has been able to develop non-traditional revenue streams that help stabilize tuition and fees and insulate the school from state budget cuts.
“We try to create the right environment so that the financial aspect is not a barrier to any individual who is qualified based on their undergraduate credentials,” Flotte said.
Staying Competitive
UMass Medical School is in the top 10 for tuition affordability for in-state residents at public medical schools in the country, getting beat out only by the University of California medical school campuses, East Carolina, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges.
Average tuition and fees at medical schools nationwide increased 4.6 percent this year compared to last year, with the average tuition for a public medical school totaling $18,537.
Private medical schools on average charge $37,877 for tuition, a 4.1 percent increase this year compared to last.
While UMass Medical School’s tuition is one of the lowest in the country, the school has one of the highest mandatory fees for students. Fees include curriculum charges, equipment and counseling fees.
Students are charged $5,886 in mandatory fees at UMass, while nationwide, public medical school students average $3,291 in fees. Those fees increased for UMass Medical School students about 2.6 percent this year compared to last.
UMass Medical Students also pay higher insurance rates compared to most other public medical schools.
Insurance for UMass students came in, on average, at $3,212 per year, compared to the national average of $1,487.
Overall, UMass Medical School ranks 16th out of 76 public medical school programs in the country in terms of cost of attendance when tuition, fees and health insurance costs are added together.
Revenue Diversification
UMass Medical School collected about $750 million in revenue last year and employs more than 2,600 part-time and full-time faculty. Its “non-traditional revenue” streams include its health insurance consulting division, Commonwealth Medicine, as well as the nation’s only publicly-run vaccine manufacturing plant located near Boston.
Commonwealth Medicine is about a $350 million enterprise that was formed in 1999 to provide consulting to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to find efficiencies in health services. The program currently serves nonprofit clients in 20 states and internationally.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Biological Laboratory has two campuses, one in Mattapan and another in Jamaica Plain, that produce vaccines and antibodies.
Other revenue sources for the school include about $200 million in research funding and about $38 million in state contracts.
The school also receives about $49 million in state aid. While Flotte said he’s expecting some cut from the state next fiscal year, he said the medical school will not be impacted as much as some other schools in the UMass system may be.
“Our non-traditional revenues sources have insulated us to a large degree from bearing the full front of state funding reductions,” Flotte said.
Still, he called them an important part of the school’s revenue.
Robert Connolly, vice president for strategic communications for the entire, five-campus UMass system, said the medical school has been able to create programs that help contribute to the financial health of the organization.
“The medical school has been extremely entrepreneurial and has created revenue generating programs that are to their benefit,” he said.
Some private medical schools rely on their endowment to help stabilize tuition and fees.
Tufts University School of Medicine is in the midst of a capital campaign to increase its financial aid to students. While continuing to fundraise for additional financial aid, the school has increased scholarships for students eightfold in the past two years. Tuition, fees and insurance for would-be doctors attending Tufts total approximately $54,000.
Tuition at the school has increased by 4 percent for the past few years. That’s in line with the national average of a 4.1 percent increase in tuition and fees.
“We’ve tried to keep the increase stable despite the downturn in the economy,” said Tufts School of Medicine spokesperson Christine Fennelly.
The school also has a student loan forgiveness program for alumni who work in low-paying nonprofit and public sector jobs.
UMass Medical School has a similar program, called the Learning Contract, which defers two-thirds of the student’s tuition and fees. Students can either repay the loan after college, or pay back the loan in service.
Public Plight
Undergraduate public schools have seen a similar increase in tuition and fees, the College Board reported last month. Tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities increased more steeply this past decade than it has in the previous two decades.
The one-year difference at public four-year institutions was a 6.5 percent increase between 2008 and 2009.
Robert Antonucci, president of Fitchburg State College, said it’s been difficult to deal with cuts from the state, while at the same time having increases in most expenses including energy, salaries, supplies and equipment.
While the state college system’s tuition has not increased, fees for students have. Tuition has not changed from the $970 since 2001, but fees have more than tripled to $5,444.
At the same time, state support at Fitchburg State has dropped – it was $23.1 million in 1999 and is projected to total $21.5 million next year.
“I think we’ve all be conscious of keeping our tuition and our fees reasonable,” Antonucci said. “But you’ve got to make up the deficit of the state appropriation somehow.”
Antonucci said he’s not surprised to learn that tuitions at public, four-year universities are rising faster now than ever before.
“I think it’s directly tied to the decrease in state appropriations,” Antonucci said.
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