Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Increases of tuition, fees sought in UA System
Tuition and mandatory fees in the upcoming academic year are proposed to increase by less than $300 for students with a typical workload attending colleges and universities in the University of Arkansas System.
The University of Arkansas board of trustees is to meet beginning today in Little Rock and review all proposed tuition and fee changes.
Rate increases by percentage have generally fallen in recent years. But experts and advocates for college affordability said other factors, such as the need-based aid available to students and the cost of their living expenses, must be considered alongside tuition rates.
If approved, the tuition-and-fee costs at UA-Fayetteville would increase to $9,384.90 annually from $9,129 for a student taking a 30-hour schedule over the academic year, an increase of 2.8%. The largest school in the state by enrollment, UA-Fayetteville seeks to raise tuition by 2.5% and mandatory fees by 4.07%, according to information from the UA System.
Last year, UA-Fayetteville and other public colleges and universities held the line on tuition increases for in-state students after a request from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
This year, among four-year universities in the UA System, only the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is not seeking to increase its in-state tuition. With a proposed mandatory fee increase of 3.06%, the combined tuition-and-fee costs at UALR are set to rise to $9,529 annually from $9,439
for a 30-hour schedule, a combined increase of 0.95%.
However, in 2018-19, the combined costs at UALR increased by $503.10 compared with a year earlier.
Among two-year schools, only the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville seeks to leave tuition unchanged.
Nate Hinkel, a UA System spokesman, said the institutions “understand the impact rising costs have on our students.” He cited the “reality of increasing costs with generally flat public support” when asked why most schools in the UA System are seeking tuition increases.
Sandy Baum, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute who studies higher-education finance and college access, said rate increase of less than 3% are “in line with what it’s been in the nation as a whole over the last couple of years.”
Baum said household incomes are another factor in college affordability, however. She said lower- and middle-income people are seeing some increases in their earnings in the current economy. But she said those recent gains for lower-income families may not be enough to afford college.
“If you’re a family making $40,000 a year, suppose your income went up by even 4%. That doesn’t mean you’re saying, ‘Oh, no problem to that higher tuition,’ because you’re struggling with lots of things
and you’ve been struggling for a number of years,” Baum said. “You probably haven’t saved for college, and if you haven’t saved, it’s hard to pay for college.”
Financial aid “makes a huge difference,” Baum said. The administration of President Donald Trump has proposed shifting money from Pell grants — a type of federal financial aid for low-income students — to support other budget priorities.
A change would require approval by Congress, Baum said, calling it “really a longer-term issue, not an immediate issue.”
Tuition and fees at UA-Fayetteville had increased, but by a declining percentage, every year since 2014-15, with the proposed 2.8% increase for 2019-20 set to break the streak after an 0.8% increase in 2018-19.
But the 2.8% combined increase, while higher than recent years, falls below the average yearly rate jump of 6.45% at UA-Fayetteville in the decade that began with the 2000-01 academic year, according to a Democrat-Gazette analysis of data published by the university.
For the current decade, not including the proposed tuition increase, the average yearly rate rise for tuition and mandatory fees at UA-Fayetteville has been 3.93%.
College fees vary by campus, but among schools in the UA System, all but three are seeking fee increases.
Among those not seeking a fee increase is the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which last year raised combined tuition and fee costs by $630. UAPB for 2019-20 seeks to raise tuition by 4.52%, which would increase combined tuition and fee costs to $8,063.50 compared with $7,841.50 in fiscal 2019.
The other schools not seeking mandatory fee increases are University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College and the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.
Among specific fee increases, Hinkel said an infrastructure fee increase at the University of Arkansas Community College at Rich Mountain will go toward what is known as the Enterprise Resource Planning project.
The project, going on across the UA System, includes a cost of about $96 million tied up in two contracts, one with Workday Inc. and another with Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Mamie Voight, vice president of policy research with the Institute of Higher Education Policy, said there are “enormous affordability hurdles” for low-income students, including costs related to food and housing.
“What institutions do is incredibly important, in both their tuition-setting actions as well as in designing their institutional financial-aid policies,” Voight said.
Trustees also will approve rates set for student housing.
This fall, UA-Fayetteville is set to open its new Stadium Drive residence halls, built using cross-laminated timber construction at a cost greater than that of more typical building methods, UA-Fayetteville officials have said. The university has described the project as a new, 708-bed residence with built-in features such as an art gallery, a recording studio, 3-D printers and a yoga studio.
UA leaders have said the project could help boost the state’s timber industry should the type of construction catch on widely.
The annual cost to live in the new hall is proposed to be $8,565 for the least expensive double-occupancy rooms. UA-Fayetteville has closed two older residences, Buchanan-Droke and Gladson-Ripley, that in 2018-19 had an annual cost of $5,598.