UT System President Jan Simek likely will approve an expansion of UTC's regional tuition discount program to include graduate students, if the program can be started at no cost to the school.
Officials said North Georgia residents could attend graduate programs in business and education as soon as this fall, and other programs could be opened in the future.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Provost Phil Oldham said he is still working to determine whether the school can break even in its first year of accepting North Georgia graduate students at an in-state rate.
"I am hoping to give (a report) to Dr. Simek within the next two weeks," he said. "Then he can veto it or go forward with it."
The UT board of trustees voted to approve an expansion of the regional tuition discount program for UTC graduate students at its annual meeting this month. The board also approved a one-year discount extension for regional undergraduate students.
While the undergraduate discount program lost the university money in its first year, 2007, Dr. Oldham said the school turned a net profit of $300,000 in its second year.
UT system spokeswoman Gina Stafford said Dr. Simek was out of town and couldn't comment. However, she said a two-year pilot to discount expansion for graduate programs will be approved as long as Dr. Simek determines "that no additional costs would be incurred and that the programs meet criteria related to quality."
Dr. Oldham said he and Dr. Simek plan to review every graduate program at UTC to see which would be the most appealing to regional students. The school also needs to determine where there is capacity for new students, he said.
Along with education and business programs, he said engineering graduate programs could also draw regional students. Typically, people who look to attend a graduate program in education or business at a regional college need to stay close to home and plan to use their new skills nearby, Dr. Oldham said.
"Those programs would be the largest and have the largest outreach possibilities," he said.
Tyler Forrest, a UT student trustee from UTC who has pushed for an expansion of the regional discount program, said he hopes Dr. Simek will allow the discount for as many programs as possible.
"North Georgia students are in an underserved population," he said. "UTC needs to become more of a regional institution. It is important that we fill those upper-level divisions with more students."
