AUSTIN – As the nine University of Texas System academic institutions continue to finalize their tuition and fee proposals for 2008 – 2010, the UT System Board of Regents today (December 6) unanimously adopted a resolution instructing the campuses to limit proposed increases in tuition and fees to 4.95 percent, or $150 per semester, whichever is greater, for each of the academic years 2008-09 and 2009-10.
The action, taken at a special called meeting of the Board in Austin, comes before the institution presidents are to submit their final campus tuition and fee proposals to UT System Chancellor Mark G. Yudof for review. The Board of Regents – which has ultimate authority to set tuition and fees for all campuses – plans to discuss the finalized proposals in March of next year.
“We take the trust and responsibility the Legislature placed in us when they gave us the authority to set tuition in 2003 very seriously,” Regents’ Chairman H. Scott Caven, Jr., said. “Since that time, our institutions have increased tuition to make up for years of stagnant funding, large increases in enrollment, and to advance excellence in the classroom and remain competitive.
“Higher education is a labor-intensive business. The costs of recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and the facilities and equipment they need to educate students increase much more quickly than other costs in the regular marketplace. We work hard to create efficiencies in all areas and we will continue to work hard to keep tuition as low as we possibly can without sacrificing the quality of the education we provide to our students.”
The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), which reflects the effects of inflation on the current operations of colleges and universities, is widely regarded as a more accurate indicator of higher education costs than the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a measure of the average change over time in a fixed market basket of goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. The HEPI typically exceeds by one to two percentage points the CPI every year.
“No one likes to raise tuition and we certainly do not expect students and their families to bear the entire burden of rising educational costs. While we would expect that tuition will continue to rise as inflation increases, at this time there are other sources of revenue and savings associated with our numerous system-wide cost saving initiatives that can be tapped to meet a portion of these costs. Having said that, and while keeping in mind the best interests of both the campuses and the students, the Board feels strongly that a 4.95 percent annual cap will allow sufficient resources to meet strategic needs and goals as defined by each campus tuition policy advisory committee,” Caven said.
A copy of the Board’s resolution may be found online. (PDF)
As in the past, the Board also emphasized that the campus plans should include setting aside at least 20 percent of new tuition revenues for financial aid programs, as well as a variety of strategic incentives to encourage students to graduate on time by taking more semester credit hours in each term they are enrolled. Campuses should also ensure that no qualified student will be denied a UT education for financial reasons.
UT institutions will use the additional tuition revenues to enhance student services and academic programs, such as retaining outstanding faculty and scientists, hiring additional advisers and faculty members, reducing class sizes, making much needed repairs and renovations to campus buildings, and addressing rising energy costs that affect their operating budgets.
About The University of Texas System
Serving the educational and health care needs of Texans for more than 125 years, the UT System is one of the nation's largest higher education systems with 15 campuses – including nine academic and six health institutions – and has an annual operating budget of $10.7 billion (FY 2008) including $2.3 billion in research funded by federal, state, local and private sources. Student enrollment exceeded 190,000 in the 2006 academic year. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually. With more than 80,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.
