Additional fees pile up for online students

Administrator explains extra costs for SVSU's online courses on tuition bills

April 28, 2008 —

For students registering for online courses there are additional fees as well as the basic technology fee.

"We're trying to recoup the additional cost for online courses," said Jim Muladore, vice president of business affairs.

The policy was created to keep students from having to pay the Academic Computing Fee, an additional $45 per class

According to the SVSU Web site, the academic computing fee is a course fee that is applied to those courses that require the use of computers in either specialized or general labs.

"These are generally your computer science classes. Most of the student body will never have to pay this fee," Muladore said.

Students registering for classes will notice additional fees added to their final total. All students taking classes on any SVSU campus will be charged a general service fee costing $10.45 per credit hour.

According to the SVSU Web site, the general service fee is an assessment for parking facilities, first aid facilities, Program Board fees, Student Association fees, publication fees and registration processing.

"The general service fee is not applied to online courses," Muladore said. "Only students taking classes on campus pay this fee."

Additionally, students taking classes will pay the technology fee, costing $3.45 per credit hour.

"The technology fee is a mandatory fee, which supports the growing technology requirements and needs for all students at the University," the SVSU Web site said.

All fees are refunded according to the tuition refund policy, 100 percent the first week, 75 percent the second week, etc.

Students interested in the fees can search "academic fees" on the SVSU Web site.