Behind every breakthrough at the University of Utah, there’s a researcher driven by curiosity, passion, and a commitment to solving real-world problems. Research Groundbreakers is dedicated to showcasing these innovators—the faculty, scholars, and entrepreneurs whose work is shaping industries, improving lives, and expanding knowledge.
From securing competitive grants to launching startups and publishing groundbreaking research, each featured story highlights not just the achievement but also the impact. Through this column, we’ll share the personal motivations, challenges, and discoveries that define research at the U.
Dr. Paul G. Rubin — Awarded by the Strada Education Foundation for “Governing Tuition: Understanding the Role of State Tuition-Setting Authority on Student Net Price and Loan Debt”
As the cost of higher education continues to rise, policymakers and university leaders are looking for new strategies to improve affordability. A new grant from the Strada Education Foundation is supporting research into one such lever: tuition-setting authority.
A grant from the Strada Education Foundation allows the research team of Dr. Paul G. Rubin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah; Dr. Amy Li, Florida International University; and Dr. Xiaodan Hu, Southern Methodist University; to better understand how tuition-setting authority (by institutions vs. systems vs. state legislatures, etc.) serves as a policy lever to encourage affordability in higher education.
“This grant is allowing us to examine an understudied policy lever that impacts college affordability, namely tuition-setting authority,” said Rubin. “Because this characteristic differs across the 50 states, it is possible that we may see trends that suggest states that allocate this role to higher education institutions or their boards may maintain lower net price for attendance and/or student debt outcomes.”
Rubin says with this study, as well as his broader body of research, he hopes to provide new and nuanced insight into how higher education operates in the United States and how it could operate better for all students, regardless of background or educational goals.
“Given the limited research on tuition-setting authority, this grant is expanding the boundaries of what is understood influencing higher education affordability,” he said. “Because higher education affordability remains a considerable concern across the U.S., findings from this study and related work may provide insights into new policy interventions possible to remedy these concerns.”
The grant awarded to Dr. Rubin and his research team is a multi-institutional collaboration of three researchers with diverse methodological and content foci within higher education.
“This has allowed for the current project to be a mixed methods examination on tuition-setting authority, providing a strong initial foundation of not just the relationship between our characteristic of interest and outcomes variables but also insights of state and higher education officials in a subset of states,” said Rubin.
Utah is the fifth state that Dr. Rubin has resided, and he says he remains fascinated by how postsecondary education access and success is impacted by state-level policies and characteristics completely outside of decisions or factors students themselves control.
“The goal of my research is to uncover and highlight these characteristics of state uniqueness and determine how these contextual factors can be better considered in the development and implementation of state and institutional higher education policy,” he said.
Ideally, the research by Dr. Rubin and his research team will allow states to consider or reconsider how tuition-setting authority is allocated in their state and its impact on college affordability.
“Our hope is that this research will add another element for decision-makers to think about when trying to help students access and attain postsecondary education,” Rubin said.
To learn more about this study, please contact Dr. Rubin.