Trident university TUI increasing tuition rates

[ucf_motorcycle]

Got an email today saying that the new military rate for TUI is $300 per credit hour. Tuition assistance is only paying $250. Anyone think that the Tuition Assistance is going to get increased to match their new tuition? I started TUI only because it wasn't going to cost me anything out of pocket and now being half way through I am going to be stuck paying for this POS degree.

[HoHum]

I am going to be stuck paying for this POS degree.

Meh. $50 bucks an hour...what's that master's going to cost you, $1000 tops?

They know they've got the easiest, most convenient school....people will probably be willing to put their own cash down for that.

What is your free time worth?

[Smokin]

Got an email today saying that the new military rate for TUI is $300 per credit hour. Tuition assistance is only paying $250. Anyone think that the Tuition Assistance is going to get increased to match their new tuition? I started TUI only because it wasn't going to cost me anything out of pocket and now being half way through I am going to be stuck paying for this POS degree.

Not a chance. Congress might look to crush the "university" for taking undue advantage of military TA but there's no way they will encourage the education system that is leading to what some people are now calling subprime educations. While I'm not generally a fan of the NY Times, here's an interesting article. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/opinion/11sat2.html

[ThreeHoler]

Got an email today saying that the new military rate for TUI is $300 per credit hour. Tuition assistance is only paying $250. Anyone think that the Tuition Assistance is going to get increased to match their new tuition? I started TUI only because it wasn't going to cost me anything out of pocket and now being half way through I am going to be stuck paying for this POS degree.

Embry has been charging $1000 per class for years. Guess TUI just figured out they could still beat Embry's ridiculous price and still make more money.

If you're a cheap fucker like me, you'll do the free degree from AU.

[Whitman]

Check out liberty university, it's only 250/hr for military and they give a book allowance too. Don't know anyone that's done the program but it seems decent.

http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=14265

[17D_guy]

UNO also increased their rates next term. Seems like it's going 'round.

[Craftsman]

Check out liberty university, it's only 250/hr for military and they give a book allowance too. Don't know anyone that's done the program but it seems decent. http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=14265

I am getting my degree from Liberty. Easy school. But the book voucher only applies to undergrad. So still have to pay for your books as Masters student. Im half way through and it doesn't cause me to use many brain bytes.

[guineapigfury]

Is this how Trident is celebrating their near miss with accreditation?

[joe1234]

Why charge $250/hr for something that they know you'll pay $300/hr for? And why would congress raise TA when they know retention is not a problem? It's not like people in the military are going to stop being sycophants anytime soon, so they'll just pay out of pocket.

[guineapigfury]

Why charge $250/hr for something that they know you'll pay $300/hr for? And why would congress raise TA when they know retention is not a problem? It's not like people in the military are going to stop being sycophants anytime soon wanting promotions so they don't end up getting RIFed into the worst economy of the last 70 years, so they'll just pay out of pocket.

FIY

Edited June 13, 2012 by guineapigfury

[abmwaldo]

If you're a cheap ######er like me, you'll do the free degree from AU.

"2"

Check out liberty university, it's only 250/hr for military and they give a book allowance too. Don't know anyone that's done the program but it seems decent.

http://www.luonline....x.cfm?PID=14265

The Frau is getting her masters in School Psychology from Liberty and she doesn't have to put too many brain bytes to it; they do require "intensives" or basically a class in a week where you actually attend the campus in Lynchburg.

[ucf_motorcycle]

I am cheap....but since I am half way through the program I will have to finish it as its a pain to try and get classes transfered to another school. I would not sign up for TUI now and pay out of pocket. I feel cheated as I was lured in to their flexible program with no out of pocket fees. It seems also that since their accreditation issues the course work is getting more time consuming too. Not worth it anymore.

[Magnum]

Something to keep in mind is that at Trident, all of the classes are 4 credits. That means each class will cost $200 out of pocket. As an esteemed graduate of that fine institution, I would not have paid 1 cent for any of their "classes." I understand wanting to check the container but there are other schools that actually teach for not much more than the rate per class at Trident.

[Skitzo]

AMU was once 250 a credit hour....

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

AMU is $925/class

[LoneStar]

Why charge $250/hr for something that they know you'll pay $300/hr for? And why would congress raise TA when they know retention is not a problem? It's not like people in the military are going to stop being sycophants anytime soon, so they'll just pay out of pocket.

Sycophant...I had to look that one up...clearly you didn't go to TUI

[Chida]

I'm really surprised that the AF is still paying TA at all, since the 9/11 GI Bill covers everyone, pretty much, these days. Once the bean counters figure that out, then TA will probably stop. Why pay for something that's already covered under a separate program?

[Karl Hungus]

It'll be very interesting when TA goes away in the near future. Blow your GI Bill or your own money on a worthless masters in order to be promoted? LOL.

[guineapigfury]

It'll be very interesting when TA goes away in the near future. Blow your GI Bill or your own money on a worthless masters in order to be promoted? LOL.

Time to get while the getting is good. Worthless "promote me" masters or something useful on the outside, you make the call.

[Hacker]

The best thing about TUI's entire program was that it cost the same as TA covered.

I thought their business plan was fucking genius -- charge the service member absolutely nothing, have little "scholarship" programs that allow guys to keep taking classes even when they've maxed out TA for that year, make the classes super military-friendly (in many different ways), and rack up the big bucks from guys filling the squares for promotions.

By raising their tuition even $1, they've 86'd the biggest advantage they had. They're done.

[FUSEPLUG]

I'm two classes away from getting that barely-accredited POS degree and am seriously thinking about quitting. Just the principle of paying those assholes out-of-pocket to take their "classes" makes me ill. Transferring will probably just result in more coursework at another crappy online school which would take me past my PRF next summer. I just need to keep telling myself that the $400 I shell out now will pay for itself with that first O-4 paycheck. F-you TUI (or whatever you're calling yourself this month)!

[Scholar]

I was interested to learn of the tuition increase at Trident University and joined this board specifically to let you know that the situation there is, in my opinion, possibly much worse than you might imagine. If what I write below is common knowledge or has been announced by the university then my apologies in advance but my understanding is that it is not known by students nor has it been announced publicly by the new management despite the fact that it has possibly serious implications for the nature of the educational model at Trident University International as well as the future of at least some of its programs and its future as an educational institution.

As you are probably aware Trident University International was served with a "show cause" letter by its accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, (WASC), in the Summer of 2011as a result of inadequate procedures it ints handling of the transcripts of incoming students who had taken courses elsewhere, and because it failed to inform WASC of this despite knowing about it for some time beforehand. The issuing of a "show cause" letter is the most severe reprimand an accreditor can issue short of directly revoking accreditation, as it demands that the institution should show cause why the accreditation should not be revoked. Trident University International had until March 2012 to do so.

As a result staff and faculty there worked extremely hard to weather the crisis, keep students informed and help avoid them defecting to other schools. In March 2012 TUI succeeded in having the show cause injunction removed and instead it was placed on probationary status for the following twelve months. Not exactly a stellar situation but better than losing accreditation.

Almost immediately after successfully passing the show cause deadline the university's management rewarded a slew of its hard working and devoted staff with pink slips. But these followed a series of firings, dismissals and letting goes which had been taking place in 2011.

The prior President had been let go at the time the crisis became known and the Vice-President of Academic Affairs, who was also implicated, took early retirement. The head of the Marketing department, probably seeing the writing on the wall, left shortly thereafter, as did the VP of Human Resources. The Dean of the College of Business, the university's only African American full-time faculty member had already been fired before the crisis broke, and his job was handled for many months by the VP of Student Services. Once the crisis broke the remaining staff worked extremely hard to get TUI through it, but as I indicated their reward for many once they succeeded was to be fired. This applied to the VP of Student Services, (who had been holding down two jobs for many months), the remaining VP of Marketing and a number of other staff.

Then at the end of May full-time faculty were also fired. Professors who had been with the university virtually since its inception in the mid-1990s, and who were an integral part of the doctoral, MBA and undergraduate business degree programs were summarily dismissed apparently as part of a cost-cutting measure in which it seems the educational model of TUI is being radically changed. This model had placed an emphasis on a core group of full-time faculty to develop and deliver the educational content of courses. At the end of May it was made clear that the number and pay of full-time faculty would be reduced and much greater reliance would be placed on part-time faculty than before. It is perhaps worth noting that in the business of online education many part-time faculty work for multiple employers, and because they work part-time their loyalty to any one institution and concern for the students is limited. Often they regard their work as being about "processing" as many students and their papers as possible. You can draw your own conclusions as to what implications that might have for the quality of the education and how the degrees being granted are regarded.

At the moment students may not feel an immediate effect, as courses designed by dismissed faculty are still being used, and indeed dismissed faculty are still shown on Trident's website as still employed by the university. However, these actions along with the tuition increase and the kinds of reactions posted above suggest:

1. An institution in financial crisis which is desperately trying to cut costs and increase revenues, regardless of the medium term impact doing so will have on either educational quality or enrollments.

2. The questionable future of the university's doctoral program.

3. Serious gaps in key personnel. For instance the university has been advertising for a replacement for their VP of Academic Affairs for months with the position still unfilled. There's also no VP of HR. No VP of Marketing. No librarian. No Director of Institutional Research, and as far as I know the Director of the undergraduate Business degree program was also fired.

4. Having seen how devoted and long-standing employees have been treated the morale of the remaining staff and faculty will be in the toilet and you can imagine that many will surely be looking for other options, and that will have a further effect in eroding educational quality.

5. As indicated by the posts above tuition fee increases will put off potential students and one can reasonably expect enrollments to fall adding further to the institution's financial problems.

6. As Trident University International has been owned by venture capital investors (Summit Partners) since 2007, you can also reasonably expect that they are now considering whether to hold on to their investment or whether to sell it off instead, and that may well be the reason for the underlying change in the educational model towards using more part-time faculty - to make the place a better fit for some other potential buyer.

Clearly all this is not likely to be good news for many students, who not unreasonably will be concerned about the uncertainty this situation creates. Yet in the face of all this turmoil the silence from the university is deafening and further undermines confidence in its future. Perhaps new President Sansing, who worked previously for Argosy, will make another YouTube video explaining what is going on, like she did during the "show cause" crisis, but I'd have thought that if she intended to do that she'd have done so by now.

I apologize for how long this post is but I wanted folks to know what's going on at TUI as best I know about it. If anyone here is enrolled there and hears anything further or can provide more information or clarification then posting it here will probably be very helpful to other students.

[Champ Kind]

Wow. That's a lot going on for a "university" that I thought was nothing more than a couple of barely-educated online "teachers" and a PO Box in like West VA or something.

[sky_king]

They could raise the price $0.01 a credit hour. I got half way through the program and stopped. I'm not paying a single cent to get a degree from that retarded institution. I once submitted the same exact paper twice within minutes of each other. I bet you'll never guess what grade I got on them.

[czecksikhs]

I submitted 5 files that were just .jpeg files renamed to "Czecksikhs essay 1-5.doc" for my capstone class. I was just hoping for an extension by making the professor think the files were corrupted, but got all A's. The professor even commented on my "insightful discussion of the topic."