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SOURCE: Associated Press
02.09.07
Tuition hikes would take effect this fall under UNC plan
GREENSBORO (AP) - Tuition and fees could increase by 9 percent this fall at some schools within the University of North Carolina system if proposed rates are approved Friday by the UNC Board of Governors.
A board committee has approved tuition increases of between 5 percent and 6 percent for most campuses within the 16-school system for the 2007-08 academic year. The plan will go to the full board for a vote Friday during a meeting at North Carolina A&T State University.
The board is limited to a 6.5 percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students under a policy adopted last year, though certain fees that cover debt on some university facilities are exempt. As a result, the total cost to students can exceed the cap.
Under the plan, tuition and fees for undergraduate residents would increase by 6.9 percent to $5,002 at North Carolina State University, 6.2 percent to $5,176 at UNC-Chapel Hill, and 6.2 percent to $3,605 at North Carolina Central University.
Students at some schools would face steeper increases, including 9 percent at Western Carolina University and 9.6 percent at East Carolina University.
Among other things, the increases will generate new revenue for faculty salaries and financial aid for low-income students.
''While I am as strong a believer in low tuition as anyone, low tuition without high quality is no bargain,'' UNC President Erskine Bowles said.
Tuition is allowed to increase by no more than 6.5 percent annually for the next four years under a plan approved by the Board of Governors in October. Bowles, whose office drafted the plan, said it would keep education affordable and avoid the steep tuition increases that had caught students off guard in recent years.
Debt service fees, which cover costs such as new building construction financed by the campus, were exempt from the cap, though officials have said such costs were infrequent.
The amount of the tuition cap equals the annual average tuition increase in the UNC system over the past 34 years. The cap applies only to in-state undergraduate tuition.
