How does 86 percent off of the original price sound? Pretty good, huh?

Kellie Woodhouse of Inside Higher Ed reports.

Gen Ed Discounting or Devaluing?

University of Akron plans to cut the cost of its general education courses by 86 percent and begin delivering them primarily online in an effort to both increase enrollment and respond to calls from the state’s governor to make college more affordable for Ohioans.

The university is publicizing that by charging $50 per credit hour — down from $359 per credit hour for an in-person general education class on the college’s main campus — students who enroll in the GenEd Core Pilot Program will pay half as much as they would for a general education class at a community college.

Yet Northeast Ohio community colleges and representatives from Akron’s faculty union are skeptical about the program. Community colleges, worried in part that the program will erode their student base, have accused Akron of inaccurately advertising the financial benefits of Akron over two-year colleges and “misleading” students.

“The overall cost of the 60 credit hours at a community college for the associate degree is less than half of the cost for 60 credit hours at the University of Akron, even with the proposed discounted tuition structure,” the presidents of Cuyahoga Community College, Lorain County Community College, Lakeland Community College and Stark State College wrote in a joint statement. For four community colleges to jointly issue a statement criticizing a local public university — on the day that university announces a new program — is unusual. And so is a public university boasting about savings for students who might otherwise go to community colleges.