In order to prop up declining enrollment at some colleges and universities in Georgia, some institutions will now be allowed to offer in-state tuition prices to students from South Carolina.
With this change, Georgia institutions hope to recruit South Carolina students to move south of the border and fill dormitories and classrooms at schools with dwindling numbers.
The University System of Georgia's Board of Regents has approved a temporary change in policy to allow some schools with available capacity to recruit students from bordering states of South Carolina, Florida and Alabama and offer them in-state prices.
The changes come as the result of enrollment declines and population shifts that have left some institutions with excess capacity, according to the University System of Georgia.
The policy doesn't include the state's major universities Georgia Tech or the University of Georgia, but 10 institutions have been approved under the policy change.
The College of Coastal Georgia, for example, has been approved to offer a border state resident waiver to incoming students for the next three years, said John Cornell, Coastal Georgia's spokesman.
Once approved with the waiver, students may continue to receive the in-state tuition price until they complete their degree as long as they remain continuously enrolled, he said.
"Affordability is the operative word," Clayton Daniels, assistant vice president of enrollment management at Coastal Georgia, said in a statement. "Out-of-state tuition is almost quadruple the in-state rate for full-time students."
Julie Carullo, interim executive director of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, said she was aware of the new policy, which expands on an existing policy that allowed both South Carolina and Georgia colleges to offer in-state tuition to residents of border counties.
It's too early to say what its effect will be on enrollment at South Carolina schools, but the commission will study the change, she said.
The 10 schools approved to offer in-state tuition starting in fall of this year are:
• Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College,
• Albany State University,
• Armstrong State University,
• Bainbridge State College,
• College of Coastal Georgia,
• Darton State College,
• Georgia Southwestern State University,
• Savannah State University,
• South Georgia State College and
• Valdosta State University.
