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Course and Program Fees

Overview

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Course and program fees may be charged to students to recover the costs of materials and supplies that are not normally covered by the instructional budget but are fundamental to the special instructional activities associated with a specific course. Such fees represent additional costs to students that are not reflected in the Cost of Attendance and therefore cannot be supported by student financial aid. For this reason, it is important that all course and program fees be reviewed, approved, and monitored.

Standard costs of offering a course are expected to be borne by the academic department, including materials related to the mechanics of teaching the course (such as course outlines, syllabi, exams, and similar handouts) and the purchase and replacement costs of instructional equipment with an expected usable life of more than five years. The department is also expected to bear the costs of staffing courses, including personnel employed to aid in the delivery of the course, such as teaching assistants and guest speakers.

Costs that may not be assessed as course fees or program fees include salaries, wages, and related benefits (with the exception of Physical Education courses); honoraria (with the exception of travel-study courses which must complete W-8 BEN forms for honoraria paid), depreciable equipment, computers, University- or department-owned software and licenses, capital and infrastructure-related expenditures, and travel- related costs for faculty and other personnel (with the exception of travel-study courses).

Course and program fees must be used solely for support of the course or program involved. A course or program fee should be exceptional rather than routine and is not intended to replace normal budgeted support for instruction. Course and program fees must be set at the minimum level required to cover costs and the amount charged must be justified.

All course and program fees must be pre-approved, billed, collected, and periodically reviewed in accordance with the procedures outlined in this document. All course and program fees must be billed and collected via the University’s BANNER student information system. Such fees may not be collected by a Dean’s Office, department, or faculty/staff member. In the case of international travel-study courses with non-refundable components of the program fee, the non-refundable component of the fee will be collected by the Office of International Education (OIE) at the time of student commitment (which may be months prior to registration). The OIE deposit portal will then apply a non-refundable program fee to the student account and apply the earlier collected payment to the student account. This will ensure the University's collection of funds to cover non-refundable expenses if the student chooses to later drop the course.

Authorization to assess a course or program fee for extraordinary costs will be granted on a case-by-case basis. Examples of costs that may be recovered by a course or program fee include:

  • Special, required class activities such as transportation for field trips, event or facility admission costs, or private music lessons
  • Manuals and materials that are retained by the student and used in lieu of a textbook (University Copyright policies must be followed when printing copyrighted materials)
  • Materials and supplies consumed, retained, or used by the student, including, but not limited to, chemicals, lab supplies, art supplies, course-specific software license fees, and other single-use items
  • Supplemental written materials, such as supplemental readings, if students are to have ownership of the materials.

Exceptions to this policy for unusual situations involving costs not typically associated with courses must be approved by the Provost and Senior Vice President.

Who needs to read this UOP?

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This UOP applies to all members of the University community including, without limitation, individuals who are faculty, staff, students, contractors, consultants, temporary employees, volunteers, and affiliates of the University.

What else do I need to know?

Definitions
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None.

New Course/Program Fees
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The Dean’s Office will submit the Course and Program Fee Proposal Form electronically to the Office of Financial Analysis & Budgeting (FAB) along with the proposed fee rate calculation in Excel format. The fee amount must be in whole dollars. The proposal is reviewed and approved by the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President. For faculty-led travel programs, a fee range may be proposed initially, with the final fee approved prior to course registration opening.

Upon approval, Student Financial Services will create a new BANNER detail code for new course or program fees. Each approved fee requires its own unique detail code. Detail codes are not transferrable to other courses.

The department will work in conjunction with its Dean’s Office and the Registrar to ensure that the detail code and corresponding fee are assigned to the appropriate course in BANNER at least one week prior to student registration for the semester the fee takes effect. A course or program cannot be made active for student registration until all details have been finalized and approved, including any applicable fees. No modifications or fee additions are allowed after student registration for the course has opened.

Existing Course/Program Fees
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It is the responsibility of each Dean’s Office to review and monitor its fees and associated calculations prior to course scheduling each semester. The Assistant Provost will oversee a process to annually monitor the use of course and program fees on the basis of selected key performance metrics.

Travel-Study Course Fees
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The following components of the participating faculty/staff members’ travel costs may be incorporated into the student fee:

  • Semester Abroad Travel: airfare, in-country travel, lodging, supplies, and materials; meals are excluded as semester-long lodging should provide kitchen facilities.
  • Short-Term Travel: all departure transportation, in-country travel, lodging, meals, supplies, and materials.

Departmental funding may be used to subsidize any category of faculty expense to reduce costs for students; departmental funding may be used to fund faculty meal expenses in semester abroad programs.

Within the student fee, the appropriate ratio of faculty expense to student expense is as follows:

  • Semester Abroad Travel: The faculty expense portion of the student fee should be no greater than 10% of the total estimated student out-of-pocket expense.
  • Short-Term Travel: The Faculty expense portion of the student fee should be no greater than 15% of the total student out-of-pocket expense.

While there is no uniform faculty-to-student travel-study participant ratio, the following are provided as benchmarks.

  • Semester Abroad Travel: A minimum of 2 ¶¶Òõ̽̽ agents per trip.
  • Short-term Travel: a minimum of 2 ¶¶Òõ̽̽ agents, with a maximum of 18 students per 2 agents, unless otherwise recommended by the International Travel Advisory Group (ITAG).
Is there education available?
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Training will be provided on an as-needed basis as determined by the Approval Authority or the Responsible Official.

Forms

What if I still have questions?

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Questions concerning the daily operational interpretation of this UOP should be directed to the following:

Title(s)/Department(s):Contact Information:
Office of Financial Analysis and BudgetingContact your FAB Analyst

Version History

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Responsible Official:Provost and Senior Vice President
Affiliated Policy Number(s):None
Approval Authority:Provost and Senior Vice President
Effective Date:December 10, 2018
Revision History:
  • June 1, 2015

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