To lure students into science, healthcare, and engineering fields, Florida is proposing to enact a tuition freeze at state schools for those majors. "The Florida proposal is a new twist on an old idea. Instead of increasing tuition across the board, many universities over the past decade have started charging more for majors with courses that are more costly to provide," Time reports. In the past, that meant that science majors paid more than humanities majors as labs and the equipment needed for them cost more.
Whether or not such an incentive will work is debatable, Time adds. "There is some evidence that external incentives lower internal motivation," says Timothy Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. "There's a danger if people are doing something just because it's cheaper. Engineering is a very challenging field. People need to be really into it — it's not something you can do just for the money."