JEFFERSON CITY — A proposal to repeal the University of Missouri’s exclusive privilege as the only public higher education institution in the state to confer doctoral degrees, including in medicine and engineering, got a hearing before a Senate committee on Wednesday.
“Essentially what this bill does,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, “is restore the ability for the Coordinating Board for Higher Education … to allow needed degrees to be conferred by any institution in the state of higher education.”
The language of SB 749 specifically reads that it would remove provisions making the University of Missouri the state’s only public university to grant research-doctorates and first-professional degrees, such as medicine and law.
Thomas Strong, a retired lawyer who spoke in favor of the bill during witness testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Empowering Missouri Parents and Children, said it would benefit students all over Missouri, mainly those who don’t want to or can’t afford to attend Mizzou.
“We’re losing those students who go to other states, get their education there and remain there to practice their trade or profession,” Strong said. “We need to have a system of higher education in Missouri that benefits all students in all parts of the state.”
Strong noted that smaller universities in other states, such as Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Emporia State University in Kansas, with less than 5,000 students each, offer doctorates.
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Both Hough and Strong emphasized that the bill’s intention is not to be anti-MU and is aimed at allowing students across the state uninterested or unable to attend MU an opportunity to have a public education in Missouri. Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, R-Sikeston, made favorable comments on the bill in how it could impact southeast Missouri.
“When you take the geography into account, this bill could really help the disparity in southeast Missouri across the rest of the state,” Thompson Rehder said.
Opposing the bill during testimony was Dustin Schnieders, the government liaison for the University of Missouri system. He noted that the current statute requires universities to seek partnerships to offer such degrees, which the UM system has taken part in, and that the bill would end up only driving up costs.
“The existing model has proven worthy by addressing critical needs and offering students many options all while maintaining fiscal responsibilities to both students and Missouri taxpayers,” Schnieders said. “This model should be replicated and not walked away from.”
Afterward, Strong said the partnership programs Schnieders mentioned are handled by the UM system.
“It’s MU’s program and they call the shots,” Strong said. “They are taking advantage of another university’s faculty, location, equipment, staff … it doesn’t work for most non-MU universities in the state.”