ANCHORAGE Alaska
Tuition at University of Alaska campuses will continue rising for at least the next two school years, according to a unanimous board of regents decision Wednesday.
The board approved two consecutive increases of 5 percent starting next fall.
“Past increases have been 10 percent year after year,” regent Kirk Wickersham said. “We wanted to offer the consumers — the students — a little relief.”
Once the fall 2009 increase takes effect, tuition for undergraduate resident students will have increased by about 72 percent since 2003, according to the university’s statistics.
Tuition increases have been necessary to cover increasing utility costs and expanding programs, said university president Mark Hamilton.
The university expects to collect about $97.3 million from tuition during fiscal year 2009, but that only makes up a portion of its requested $783.3 million operating budget, said university spokeswoman Kate Ripley.
