Tuition Discounting
Survey
Peter Mott
2 October 2002
________________________________________________________________
Bill
makes a great point: the structure really does need to be driven by the
environment in which you function: market forces are very powerful. We now provide a flat 15% discount for
self-payers, placing us still above the international school market locally,
but close enough to have seen interest in our school skyrocket. While we are keeping a ceiling for
distribution (no single nationality > 50%), we have seen enrollment growth
for the first time in 8 years.
The
ideal is a unified structure - but there are times when you have other issue
impacting on that decision. Bill
William
F. Johnston, Ed.D. - Director, Academia
We have
an interesting situation that has evolved with having differentiated
school fees. For the past few
years we have been applying equal percentage
increases to each group which has caused the differences to grow even
wider.
Here is
an example of our 5th grade school fees in local currency R$:
Corporate
Students
Tuition
Fee R$35,604 + Development Fee R$12,750 = Total R$48,354
Local
Students
Tuition
Fee R$23,736 + Development Fee R$993 =
Total R$24,729
As you
can see when you combine the fees for a 5th grader the corporate
student pays a rate 95.5% higher than the local student.
My
advice is that if your board thinks that the local environment warrants a
differentiated fee structure, than you agree up front on a maximum total
difference between your paying groups.
My recommendation would be somewhere
in
the 30-40% range. I believe that most
corporations understand and would
agree to the rationale on why they should pay a higher annual fee. Of
course, when it comes time to raise fees for major construction, etc.,
the
corporations are normally in position to make larger contributions.
Bottom line, is if you want the best, than you follow Bill Powell's
suggestion and keep fees the same.
Unfortunately, that doesn't always work well in all environments.
Bill R.
Pearson Superintendent - ISC
I have
found over the years that a differentiated fee schedule causes many
headaches and calls of inequity.
There are many private payers that are
financially in better shape than businesses or even embassies. I have
found that establishing a significant scholarship/financial aid program
for those who cannot afford the tuition is acceptable to all and
offers a
sense of equity. A little more
work but well worth it in the long run.
bob sills
June 10,
2005
Here in
local Chamber of Commerce to successfully address this issue. The main features are:
1.
All students pay the same fees, thus avoiding issues of equity;
2.
This major corporations that acknowledge their dependence upon the
availability of high quality international schools pay a voluntary (but
formally defined) premium calculated on a per-student basis, which is
channelled directly into capital funding for the provision of our
infrastructure.
3.
In return, those companies receive priority for admission when places
are limited.
This
works well, but depends upon the existence of major corporate clients
who have a strong tradition of supporting the international
schools. It
could not work everywhere, and my experience with diplomatic
communities
such as that in
in
paying extra, even though they depend on us as much as the corporate
sector. Private payers usually
expect a 'break' on fees as well, but here
in
wealthiest. It is always worth
pointing out to them that our fees are
actually less than the per-capita expenditure in Swiss schools (at least
in
canton
We do
have a modest 'Fee Support' budget that provides temporary (max 1
year) of fee relief (max 50%) to parents who experience temporary
financial
hardship.It is only available to existing parents, not to those newly
admitted.
Finally,
I have just persuaded the Board to go ahead with setting up a full
scholarship programme to bring low-income students
from developing countries
(or possibly from the refugee population in
Michael
Matthews
Head of
School,
Strubenacher 3,
8126 Zumikon,
+41 1
919 8300 (Tel.)
+41 1
919 8320 (Fax)
Subject: Survey
Results - Volume Discounts
Date: Wed, 2 Oct
2002 18:05:17 +0200
From: "Peter
Mott" <PMott@zis.ch>
To:
<aishnet@ties.k12.mn.us>
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you to all who
responded to my question concerning "volume discounts." Here are the
results in brief:
* No. responses: 66, covering 80 schools
worldwide
* No. of schools giving some form of
"volume discount": 15
(= 18.75%); most of
them from the 3rd child up, discounts on average10-20%; several only reduce
registration fees
* Number of schools NOT giving
"volume discount": 65 (= 81.25%); many of those will offer tuition
reductions based on need only
For the record: ZIS
offers tuition reductions based on financial need.
No volume discounts
(corporations, which may have very large nos. of students enrolled, actually
pay more!)
Again, thanks a
lot..... Peter