U of A says it won't hike 2026 tuition, fees for in-state undergrads

The University of Arizona announced Thursday that tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates will not increase for academic year 2026.

All other students will see 2%-3% increases in tuition and a $3.4% increase in mandatory fees, however.

Resident undergraduate students will continue to pay $12,168 in tuition and $1,738 in mandatory fees for the fall and spring semesters in fiscal year 2026.

“By maintaining our current resident undergraduate tuition and fees, we are working to prevent financial barriers to academic opportunity,” UA President Suresh Garimella said in a news release Thursday.

“As our state’s flagship, land-grant university, the University of Arizona mission includes the responsibility to provide broad access to an affordable world-class education,” he said.

However, students in all other categories will see the 2%-3% tuition increases in the UA’s plan, which will be presented to the Arizona Board of Regents for approval. These categories include non-resident undergraduates, resident and non-resident graduates, residents and non-residents at the UA Colleges of Medicine, and residents and non-residents at the UA Colleges of Veterinary Medicine.

For non-resident undergraduates, for instance, tuition will increase from $40,520 to $41,330.

As these increases come amid the UA’s ongoing budget deficit, a student leader expressed strong disapproval.

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“The University of Arizona has done everything in its power to pin its past financial losses on its workers, students and their families,” said Jeremy Bernick, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council and a juris doctor candidate in the James E. Rogers College of Law. “Worse, they now hope that those same parties will sacrifice their futures so that the university can recoup these losses off of our backs.”

He also criticized ABOR, which oversees the UA and its tuition and fee rates, calling it “the same board who pay our leaders between half a million to a million dollars a year” as well as providing “‘incentive-based’ bonuses that dwarf the regular pay of campus workers.” The regents voted this week to make UA President Suresh Garimella, who makes a $810,000 base salary, eligible for up to $225,000 in bonuses if he meets six performance goals.

In addition to tuition, students pay mandatory fees and, if living on campus, for housing and meal plans.

Under the UA’s plan, students who are not in-state undergraduates will face an increase of 3.39% in mandatory fees.

Mandatory fees include an Arizona Financial Aid Trust (AFAT) fee and a student engagement fee, according to the UA bursar website.

The AFAT program, created to provide state-based financial aid to underrepresented students or those in financial need, was approved through student referenda and began in 1990. The student engagement fee includes fees for athletics, health and recreation, IT/library, recreation center bond retirement, recreation center program, student media, student services, sustainability and the Wildcat events board.

Resident undergraduates will not be exempted from increases in their meal plan charges or housing charges. Meal plans will increase 2% across all categories of students. Housing charges for undergraduate residence halls will increase between 2% and 3.6% and by 2.4% to 5.3% for graduate residence halls.

Six professional programs will increase fees by 4.98% to 5%: The College of Law’s juris doctor, juris doctor with advanced standing, doctor of judicial science and master of law, master of legal studies and master of professional studies in Indigenous governance programs; and the College of Pharmacy’s doctor of pharmacy program.