OKLAHOMA CITY (KSWO) - Oklahoma Rep. Rick West (R-Heavener) held an interim study looking at colleges and universities in the state and how they can keep competitive against out-of-state higher education institutions.

The study came about after a constituent reached out to West stating their child opted to leave Oklahoma to attend college.

"A college across the state line offered them too good of a deal to turn down," West said. "It had nothing to do with academics. It had everything to do with what parents could get moneywise for their kids."

During the study, college presidents from various institutions came and detailed their attempts to keep Oklahoma students within Oklahoma institutions.

One of the speakers was Allison Garrett, who is chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education.

Garrett gave statistics on how many Oklahoma students are leaving the Sooner State for out-of-state educational opportunities.

A total of 45,130 students graduated from high schools in Oklahoma in 2022. Out of those:

Out of the students leaving Oklahoma, 26% went to Kansas, 14,6% went to Arkansas, 11.2% went to Texas, 8.7% went to Missouri and 3.3% went to Colorado.

"Oklahoma is different. It has Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas and Missouri as neighbors," West said. "We have colleges from the Panhandle to Southeast Oklahoma to the Northeast and the South that are dealing with different states trying to recruit our kids. These out-of-state colleges can outcompete us unless we change our current regulations."

During discussion, the way some out-of-state institutions give tuition discounts were highlighted as one of the reasons why students have been going out of state.

Legislative suggestions were also discussed in an attempt to figure out how Oklahoma can keep its students in state.