The University of Arizona has proposed a 2 percent increase in tuition and no increase in mandatory fees next school year for incoming resident and nonresident students β the lowest increase in more than five years.
The tuition and fee proposal does not apply to more than 95 percent of returning undergraduate students. Their tuition and fees are frozen for four years under the UAβs Guaranteed Tuition program implemented in 2014, which was expanded to include fees in 2015.
For entering freshmen, the proposal works out to just under a 2 percent increase . For the last five years, new students here have seen an increase of about 3 percent or higher each year for tuition and fees.
Northern Arizona University proposed a 3.5 percent increase in tuition for incoming resident freshmen, while Arizona State University proposed no increase in tuition rates for incoming resident freshmen next year. A mandatory $150 per year athletic fee was proposed at NAU, and ASU proposed an increase of $30 per year in its mandatory health-and-wellness fee, according to a news release from the Arizona Board of Regents.
If the regents approve the UAβs proposed increases at a meeting on April 5 in Tucson, in-state students will pay $12,447 a year in tuition and mandatory fees, up $220 from this year. Incoming nonresident students will pay $36,346 a year, up $688.
New in-state graduate students at the UA would pay about $230 more in tuition and fees next year; incoming nonresident graduate students would see an increase of about $630 over this year.
βWeβve kept the tuition increase as modest as possible and we will continue to pursue operational efficiencies to fund the initiatives identified in our next strategic plan,β UA President Robert C. Robbins said in a memo released Friday.
The tuition increase will allow the school to expand resources to provide more counseling and mental-health services to students, provide more financial-aid services, grow subsidies for child-care vouchers for students, invest in merit-based raises for faculty and staff, and address operation needs such as information and technology security, Robbins said.
Students who begin attending the UA in the fall are guaranteed this rate for the next four years.
The Arizona Board of Regents will host public hearings for students and the public to comment on. The UA hearing will be Tuesday, March 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Old Main Silver and Sage room in Tucson and in the Academic Technology Building, B153, at the South Campus in Sierra Vista.
