As students and parents open their checkbooks to pay for this semester’s tuition and fees, they will have to budget for new increases.
Tuition and fee increases approved by the Board of Trustees last year go into effect this fall. Per the board’s March vote, student tuition for the 2018-2019 academic year has increased 4 percent. For undergraduate Wyoming residents, this means an increase of $5 per credit hour, upping the cost from $129 to $134. Nonresident undergrads will see an increase of $21 per credit, from $516 to $537.
The increase is in line with long-term tuition policy adopted in 2014, which calls for a 4 percent increase each academic year. The policy recommends the revenue from each increase be distributed with approximately $1 million for salary increases required for promoted faculty and staff, $500,000 allotted to Academic Affairs and $500,000 for libraries and IT.
Huron Consulting Group, retained by the university to analyze enrollment capacity and pricing, made recommendations on increases for this academic year.
The university’s strategic plan for enhancement and growth, “Breaking Through: 2017-2022,” calls for increasing enrollment by about 1,100 students to a total of 13,500 by 2022. To attract more out-of-state students to the university and better compete with other states, Huron recommended decreasing nonresident tuition for undergraduates by 35 percent, which would reduce the cost from last year’s $15,480 to $9,500.
The board declined to approve this decrease, however, citing the need to study the financial ramifications further.
More than 140 student fees for specific college programs and courses have also been revamped for the 2018-2019 academic year. In November 2017, the Board of Trustees approved a new student fee program based on the recommendations of a task force appointed by President Laurie Nichols.
“The university has been incredibly fortunate in receiving strong support from the state, which has allowed us to provide excellent educational opportunities at a very low cost to students,” Nichols said in a release. “Challenging times need not undermine the university’s commitment to quality, accessible and affordable higher education. That is what the program fee proposal will help us accomplish — keeping costs low while enhancing academic advising and program quality.”
Revenue from a new fee of $6 per credit hour will go toward improved and expanded advising services and career planning. Other fees have been restructured to reflect the cost of individual academic programs; for some nonscience College of Arts and Sciences courses, the fee is $3 per credit, while for College of Engineering and Applied Science and visual and performing arts courses, it’s $25 per credit.
The idea is for the fees to more closely reflect the actual cost of each program and ensure the revenue comes from and goes back to students who will benefit from it the most. The fee increases are expected to generate $4.5 million in revenue each year.
In March, the board also approved a $10 increase per semester in mandatory fees for university athletics and $6.06 for consolidated student services.
Despite the tuition and fee increases, the University of Wyoming’s resident tuition and fees remain the lowest of doctoral-granting universities in the U.S. and nonresident costs among the lowest.
