The UNC System has opened the door for tuition increases for in-state undergraduates for the first time in a decade. Already, boards of trustees at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State have voted to seek an increase, citing strained university budgets. The UNC Board of Governors will ultimately decide whether to request in-state tuition increases early next year.
But universities should be tightening their belts, not raising prices for students. North Carolina’s constitution requires that “the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.” In fact, from 1971 to 1999, the UNC Board of Governors recommended increases only when required by the North Carolina General Assembly.
State statute and Board of Governors policy echo the mandate that tuition should be as low as possible, as UNC-Chapel Hill trustee Marty Kotis mentioned during a committee meeting last week. Kotis noted that state law instructs the Board of Governors to set non-resident tuition “at rates higher than the rates charged residents of North Carolina and comparable to the rates charged nonresident students by comparable public institutions nationwide.”
Kotis also said the Board of Governors’ tuition policy directs campuses to demonstrate that they have “exhausted all other reasonable levers” before requesting in-state undergraduate tuition increases. Specifically, the UNC Board of Governors’ policy instructs universities to consider whether there is “evidence of institutional efforts to manage costs through increases in productivity, budget flexibility, and/or efficiency improvements” as part of the tuition-setting process.
For the past 10 years, these mandates have driven UNC System policy. The system has introduced the NC Promise tuition plan, which caps tuition at $500 per semester for in-state students and $2,500 per semester for out-of-state students at five UNC System schools. North Carolina has also created the Next NC scholarship, a “financial aid program that helps most North Carolinians from households making $80,000 or less pursue higher education.” Under Next NC, “students attending a community college will receive at least $3,000 per year. Those attending a public university in North Carolina will get a minimum of $5,000 per year.”
This generous commitment is funded by North Carolina taxpayers, many of whom send their children to UNC institutions. North Carolina consistently ranks in the top 10 states for per-student university funding from taxpayers. Universities should match that taxpayer generosity by continuing to rein in expenses and extending the longstanding tuition freeze for in-state undergraduate students.
Universities in other states prove that this can be done.
In Indiana, Purdue University has had its tuition and all mandatory student fees frozen for 14 years. It has achieved this by various means, including increasing revenues from graduate students, out-of-state undergraduates, and donations, as well as reducing expenses for academic support, institutional support, and student services.
In a 2014 letter to Purdue stakeholders, then-president Mitch Daniels pursued even small savings.
He stated, “If we can maintain a campus-wide commitment to holding costs down, counting every $10,000 saved as a ‘student tuition equivalent’, we can fulfill our duty to our students, taxpayers and everyone who chooses to invest in Purdue’s enterprise.”
In Florida, tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students have been frozen since the 2014-15 academic year. That’s two years longer than UNC’s freeze. The result? Tuition and fees for in-state students at the University of Florida’s flagship campus are just $6,380, compared to $8,764 at UNC-Chapel Hill and $8,799 at NC State University.
The University of Florida proves that academic excellence can be achieved at an affordable price. The University of Florida is consistently ranked among the top 10 public universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the University of Florida No. 1 in its most recent report.
North Carolina should follow Florida’s lead. Doing so will benefit North Carolina students and citizens. It will also ensure that North Carolina’s public universities satisfy their constitutional duty to keep tuition as free as practicable for North Carolina students and families.
