UT-Knoxville, UTC may see no tuition increase
A flat tuition at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville and Chattanooga campuses is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The University of Tennessee’s subcommittee on tuition, fees and financial aid unanimously passed a motion to keep tuition flat at the UT-Knoxville and Chattanooga campuses and increase it by 3 percent at UT-Martin during a meeting Monday afternoon at the flagship campus.
The subcommittee vote on tuition and student fee proposals will now be sent on to the Finance and Administration Committee, which will then vote to move proposals to the full Board of Trustees for approval. Both parties are scheduled to take a vote on June 22, which will mark the current trustees’ last meeting.
Should the proposals get the final stamp of approval, annual in-state tuition and fees at UT-Knoxville will remain at $12,970, with outof-state tuition and fees staying at $31,390, according to David Miller, chief financial officer for the UT System.
MAKING HIGHER ED AFFORDABLE
The hold on tuition for the coming year represents the first time in 34 years that tuition has not increased at either UT-Knoxville or UT-Chattanooga and has been a few years in the making.
“If you look at all the increases in the past three years, we really made sure we focused after we revised the business model to reduce the increases that our students pay because
the eight years prior to that the average student tuition fee was increased by 8 percent,” Raja Jubran, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, said in an interview with the USA Today Network-Tennessee after the meeting. “And that was just unsustainable.”
UT System President Joe DiPietro was not present at the subcommittee meeting, as he was traveling out of state, but during a Monday morning interview he emphasized that one of his goals before his impending retirement centers on reasonable tuition.
“I think that’s important,” DiPietro said. “We want to keep affordability at the forefront.”
The proposals are particularly driven by an emphasis on making higher education cost-friendly for students living in the state, Miller said last week.
“The No. 1 thing is we’re a public university and, in serving the public, we want to be absolutely sure that we are accessible to Tennessee families,” Miller said.
After Monday’s vote, he reflected on how monumental the committee decision is for the institution.
“This is probably the best vote that any of the trustees would say they’ve taken as a member of the trustees,” Miller said.
“It’s a recognition that what we charge students matters [and] can be a challenge for many Tennessee families,” he added.
A VISION OVER MULTIPLE YEARS
The announcement of the university system’s efforts to curb tuition increases is more than a piece of good news in the wake of a controversial leadership change at the Knoxville campus, according to Miller.
The UT Board of Trustees initiated conversations about charging the lowest possible tuition when Miller presented the budget to the board last June.
Trustees instructed DiPietro and university chancellors to come back this year with tuition as low as they could manage.
This is the fourth consecutive year that UT has had tuition increases at or below 3 percent, said Miller, who noted that hasn’t happened in the last 30 years.
“It’s not reactionary at all,” he said. “It’s been long planned.”
Jubran echoed Miller, insisting the university has been reaching for minimum increases to tuition in an effort that started four years ago.
“In fact, it was in response to some of the legislators that were extremely concerned about the increases during the eight years priors to that,” Jubran said.
The last time the university system kept tuition steady from year to year — in 1984 — it raised tuition 10-12 percent the next year, according to Jubran.
“But we will not do that,” he said, referring to the incoming Board of Trustees.
Across the system, tuition and fee increases are also on track to be the lowest since 1984, according to school officials.
Miller credits help from the state, which assists with funding cost increases — mainly personnel salaries — for the university system’s ability to offer students as low a tuition as possible.
Additionally, burgeoning enrollment at UT-Knoxville and positive outcomes from a state funding formula at UT-Knoxville and UT-Chattanooga have positioned the institution to keep increases down.