Missouri Considers Four-year Tuition Lock
COLUMBIA, Mo.
Looking to neighboring Illinois as a model, University of Missouri President Elson Floyd has proposed a four-year tuition lock that would guarantee payments won’t increase once an undergraduate starts school.
In June, Floyd asked university curators to consider guaranteeing a single tuition rate for incoming freshmen as well as other enrolled undergraduates for the remainder of their courses of study. Floyd has yet to determine the plan’s fiscal impact but will hit the road in August to build support with a series of public forums across the state.
“We’ve had a lot of volatility over the last five years, particularly with tuition and fees,” he said. “What we need to do is provide some stability.”
Since 1993, tuition for in-state students at the Missouri system’s four campuses has increased an average of 8.3 percent annually. Missouri residents who paid $2,733 in tuition a dozen years ago paid $6,276, or more than twice as much, in the most recent academic year.
Those annual increases include a 14.8 percent jump in 2002 and a 19.8 percent jump in 2003. At the same time, state support has been reduced by a total of $148 million in the past five years, while the campuses in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Rolla have added a combined 7,000 students.
