UH considers tuition increase for next 2 years

Blaming decline in funding, colleges across Texas are considering hikes

As the cost of college in Texas continues to rise, UH would remain on the pricier end of the scale if regents agree to another $100-plus a semester.

As the cost of a college degree in Texas continues to rise, the University of Houston would remain on the pricier end of the scale if regents agree to tack on another $100-plus a semester this fall and next.

The regents on Thursday will consider two 2-percent increases that would bring the average undergraduate’s tuition and fees to about $5,453 per semester in 2017 — about $220 more than now. UH, long thought of as a lowcost commuter school, is now the second-most expensive state school in Texas, according to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board data. It’s likely to stay that way.

Schools across the state are considering tuition increases. University leaders say declining state funding forces themto rely more on students to cover costs.

At the University of Texas at Austin, leaders are proposing two increases that would require students to pay about $300 more per semester in 2017. Other UT schools face much sharper hikes — students in San Antonio, for instance, may see their tuition bills rise by nearly $600 per semester.

UT Chancellor William McRaven told UT regents last week that tuition is the greatest driver of revenue in the system. UT’s tuition and fees are “at or well below the national average,” he said.

“This is really about staying competitive,” he said.

Leaders of universities across the country

are making similar statements. A 2014 report by the Government Accountability Office found that for the first time, students were carrying more of the load of funding higher education than the states.

That’s certainly the case in Texas. At UH, for example, state funding makes up 24 percent of the budget, compared to 64 percent in 1984.

Students contributed just 10 percent of the school’s revenue in 1984; their share now is 42 percent.

UH will get just $1 more per credit hour from the state in 2017 than it did in 2000, according to a presentation prepared for the regents.

A statement from UH said the proposed increases are comparable to other schools in Texas; setting tuition rates is a “lengthy and difficult” process, it said.

The school gets input from students, faculty and administrators, the statement said.

“If approved, new tuition revenue would be applied to student success initiatives at each of the UH System universities, such as increasing financial aid, improving campus facilities and enhancing academic resources,” the statement said. “It is important that we continue to make progress in retaining and graduating our students and improving the student experience.”

If regents at UHandUT- Austin approve the proposed tuition increases, students would pay about $200 more per semester at UH than at UT.

“Nobody’s a low-cost option anymore,” said state Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Democrat whose district includes UH. “They try to not raise tuition until they just have to. ”

Local lawmakers, including Coleman, said the Legislature’s decision in 2003 to give university re- gents the power to raise tuition led to the rising cost of college in Texas.

Since then, the Legislature has been reluctant to increase funding for higher education — it cut funding sharply in 2011 — forcing universities to look to students to make up the difference.

“It was a gun to the head,” Coleman said of the deregulation vote.

A number of bills were filed during the last legisla- tive session to give the state more control over tuition, but despite the strongest showing of bipartisan support since 2003, no such bill passed.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat whose district includes UH, was an author of a bill to reregulate tuition. Ellis said this year’s round of tuition hikes is another reminder that the state needs to reinstate its authority.

“Tuition deregulation has allowed the Legislature to shirk its responsibility to fund higher education, instead leaning on boards of regents to increase tuition — then turning around and blaming them for doing so,” Ellis said in a statement. “The Legislature needs to step in, end tuition deregulation, and make the difficult choices to fund higher education.”