CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina public universities want to raise tuition and fees by an average of 4 percent next year and 3.5 percent the following year for undergraduate state residents.
The governing board of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system on Thursday began discussing proposals by each school to raise the two basic costs of attendance. The UNC Board of Governors is expected to approve any increases next month.
“Unfortunately costs go up and we have stretched and stretched and stretched our campuses with cuts and cuts and cuts. So unfortunately the only way to go back and get it is through tuition,” board member Harry Leo Smith Jr. said. “We’re doing everything we can to contain costs.”
The proposals come after the statewide UNC board last year approved no tuition increase for the current 2014-15 academic year. The one-year freeze came after UNC campuses had increased average tuition by 55 percent since 2007-08, before the national recession forced sharper cuts in taxpayer funding of the universities.
America’s 700 public, four-year institutions raised tuition by 4 percent in 2013-14 to about $7,800 for in-state students and by 3 percent to about $17,500 for out-of-state students, according to U.S. Education Department data.
North Carolina’s constitution requires that university education for state residents be as cheap as possible. The UNC system compares each campus’ costs with similar schools around the country. Each North Carolina campus is among the cheapest, a report said.
The statewide average pales in importance to “where you’re going to school and how much you’re paying for your kid to go and what that money is being spent for. That’s the story,” board member Roger Aiken said.
