UT plans tuition increases for fall; 13 percent at main campus
The UT Board of Trustees, which governs the 42,000-student UT system, is scheduled to vote on the tuition increases Thursday as part of a $1.3 billion budget for fiscal 2006.
“In developing this budget, we have worked hard to balance the requirements for quality of our product with the realities of the impact of higher cost,” UT President John Petersen said in a statement Tuesday.
Tuition would rise $542 annually for instate undergraduates in Knoxville. Combined with a small fee hike, their total fee and tuition bill would jump 11.4 percent to $5,290.
A tuition increase of $407, or 9.3 percent, is planned for Chattanooga and a hike of $342, or 9.7 percent, is proposed for Martin.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which oversees all higher education in the state, recommended a 15 percent jump for Knoxville and 12 percent for Chattanooga and Martin.
By comparison, the Tennessee Board of Regents approved a 9.7 percent tuition increase for five of its universities for next year, with a 12.5 percent jump at the University of Memphis.
The UT trustees will consider a range of other increases, including a 13 percent jump for graduate programs at Knoxville, the law school at Knoxville and the UT Space Institute at Tullahoma. First-year medical students at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis would see a 3 percent increase while returning students would have no tuition change. Veterinary students in Knoxville would get a 15 percent boost.
“We are sensitive to the concerns about higher fees but also must maintain the quality expected by our students,” Petersen said. “Within the increase proposed, we have provided for additional aid that will protect the neediest level of incoming, in-state students on the Knoxville campus.”
Scholarship money will be used to cover the increase for nearly 700 Knoxville freshmen from families with an adjusted income of less than $27,000.
Petersen said flat funding from state appropriations to meet rising costs of utilities, maintenance and other fixed expenses led to tuition increases. He said the university hopes to get budget numbers to legislative leaders sooner this fall so lawmakers “will have time to study them and determine funding options other than tuition.”
The pledge comes as some legislators, unhappy with the idea of double-digit percentage tuition increases, have said there may be a serious effort to put tuition caps on public universities next year.
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University of Tennessee: http://www.tennessee.edu/