Tuition at the University of Missouri’s four campuses will remain flat this fall for in-state undergraduate students.
Meeting via conference call, the university’s curators unanimously approved the no-increase plan Wednesday morning. It had originally been proposed during their meeting on the St. Louis campus in December, but final action was delayed until the legislature voted on appropriations for the university.
The higher education budget for the coming school year, which has been signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, includes a cut to the university’s administration but an overall increase to the four-campus system because it meets performance goals.
Tuition for resident undergraduate students at UM this fall will average $9,411, ranging from $9,165 at Kansas City to $9,544 at Rolla. Tuition at the St. Louis campus will be $9,500, while tuition at Mizzou will be $9,437.
Tuition for non-resident undergraduate students will rise 3 percent at each of the campuses.
The curators also gave unanimous approval to fee increases at all four campuses, by varying amounts.
At UMSL, the fee for students in the joint engineering program with Washington University jumped by $100 to $170. Asked about the increase, Brian Burnett, the university system’s vice president for finance, said that the sharp rise brings what students pay more in line with the actual cost of the program.
“It’s a very high-cost program,” Burnett said. “It’s a very important partnership for the UMSL campus, and it’s obviously taking advantage of Washington University’s facilities and infrastructure to provide engineering programs that we couldn’t provide in the St. Louis market if not for this program.
“While it’s not ideal, I don’t believe that UMSL believes that this change will affect the enrollment in those areas, because a lot of these are working students at companies that pay for their education to get their bachelor’s degree in engineering.”
Burnett said the increase also will help ease the budget crunch at UMSL.
“Given the challenges that the St. Louis campus has, they need to make this adjustment to this high-cost program that actually provides a tremendous benefit to these students.”
If the curators had sought to raise in-state undergraduate by more than the rate of inflation, which was 0.7 percent in December of last year, state law requires that they would have had to seek a waiver from the state Department of Higher Education.
The University of Missouri’s Board of Curators holds the license for St. Louis Public Radio.
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