The FINANCIAL — Leading universities in Georgia are suffering from the global recession. The FINANCIAL was told that most universities accepted a lower number of students this year. As biz-school representatives say, it’s as a result of the economical downturn and the Government’s decision to raise the number of students enrolled in state universities. The majority of universities exclude the possibility of a reduction of tuition fees in the next year.
In 2009-2010 academic years, leading private universities faced similar problems.
Caucasus University (CU) plans to revise tuition fees. However CU President, Kakha Shengelia, denied the possibility of a reduction. “For the next year we plan to maintain the same prices we had this year. The fact that for 2009-2010 academic years CU did not accept the expected number of students was not caused by increased prices. There were other determiners in the picture. The Government has raised the contingent of students in state universities. Another factor was the economical downturn and the interruption of issuing students loans by banks,” Shengelia said.
“It is not realistic that the fee for one academic year of a BBA programme should be GEL 9,900. Domestic solvency in Georgia is not so high and this fact should be taken into consideration,” Giuli Alasania, Vice-Rector of the International Black Sea University (IBSU) in Tbilisi and Head of the Stewardship Council and Professor of the University of Georgia (UG), told The FINANCIAL.
“We are learning from our mistakes and think that in the future universities will try not to state such high fees,” Alasania believes.
Alasania does not expect tuition fees to increase. She says that in some cases they will be reduced.
“Prices at University of Georgia are different. In some schools, the fees were around GEL 3,000 and accordingly demand was higher than expected. We accepted 400 students for 20 places. Meanwhile when the cost of courses at other schools reached GEL 7,000 and the subject of math was mainly in demand we faced a shortage of students,” Alasania says.
“2009 was a difficult year for all universities because of the global recession; fewer students this year entered private universities. Moreover, more students went to the public universities knowing that they would get a 100% scholarship and receive a grant. So we are evaluating all these processes and even though all us private universities are competitors, we are facing similar problems,” Michael Cowgill, President of Georgian American University (GAU), says.
“For 2009 we increased the fee of our BBA programmes from GEL 4,500 to 7,500. However we did do some things differently. This year we have provided free access to all course textbooks. Whereas before students had to buy their own textbooks now we purchase them and let our students have access to them as much as they need. We decided to do this for different reasons, mainly as it is often difficult for students to come up with the extra money for textbooks. We wanted to make sure that our students would have access to the necessary reading material so that wouldn’t be an issue for them,” Cowgill declares.
Right now GAU is going through the accreditation process. “Every four years private universities have to go through this process and we are experiencing it now. After becoming sure that things are fine than we will look a little more strategically at 2010,” Cowgill declares.
Alasania believes that raising prices is not unreasonable. “Higher education is expensive. Nevertheless, of course the solvency of customers should be taken into account,” she says.
“Free University has not increased its prices for the new 2009-2010 academic year. We made this decision in spring when we traditionally state our prices. We took into account the global recession and saw that there was no sign of a further rise in domestic solvency. It was important for us to keep the prices and it has given us good results. Free University accepted a larger number of students than we did before,” says Kakha Bendukidze, owner of Free University comprised of three schools – Business School (ESM), Institute of Asia and Africa and Law School.
“In the next academic year we are planning to implement a new financial scheme that will dictate how to continue financing our university,” Bendukidze notes.
Bendukidze believes the education business is profitable. “However it depends on the purposes of universities. Secondary education is one of the most beneficial businesses in Georgia. As we see the huge interest of private investors we can conclude that education is beneficial. Further attraction of foreign investors in education will be good for the development of this sphere in Georgia,” he says.
Recently five leading Georgian private universities: CU, Free University, IBSU, UG and GAU have started a new association. The main goal of the association is to protect their rights from the Government together.
“The new association of private universities was created to bring together 5 leading private universities. We have quality as our key issue so together we have more of an ability to look at quality issues. We can do cooperative researches. We can do joint PHD committees. This association gives us a better position in addressing the Ministry of Education and Government on issues which perhaps individual universities would not be able to,” Cowgill says.
“However the five of us together have the ability to talk about things, have dialogue, give our opinions and this makes things easier for the Government too as they have one place to come to. They do not have to conduct separate dialogues. They can come to us in association we can talk about, give our opinions. We hope that dialogue will improve the situation on the total educational market. We are different in some case from public universities. We do things differently; we have different proper motives and different ways of thinking. We are seeing now that private universities are not so private,” he adds.
“Public and especially private universities need more freedom. Some standards of educational level should exist but not more limitation. When the first private universities were founded in Georgia it was in the pre reforms period and they were able to act more freely. Reforms have their demands and we need to follow them. It is the right time to ask for more liberty for the private sector. The results will be useful for all universities,” Alasania states.
She says that further increase of prices of education will be discussed in the terms of the association but will be just advice. “Universities will take the decision independently,” Alasania notes.
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