Educational Quality, Access, and Tuition Policy at State Universities

eral missions. The best state universities rank among the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the world and pride themselves on the of their academic programs. Other state universities strive to emulate the best. In this respect, state universities are similar to private universities of similar size. In contrast to most private universities, however, state universities have a special obligation to make their academic programs accessible to a wide cross section of the state population, in particular, to undergraduate students from low-income and minority families in the state. We use the terms educational quality and to describe these two missions.' Educational and access may conflict when state universities formulate tuition policies. If a state university requires additional revenue to maintain the of its undergraduate programs, the attractiveness of a tuition increase depends, among other considerations, on the extent to which the higher tuition will discourage applications by