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SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
11.08.07
UNC tuition increases will be more moderate
By: April Bethea
Tuition increases should take a smaller chunk from the accounts of many UNC system undergraduates and their parents, thanks to a fatter budget from state lawmakers.
Four schools, including UNC-Chapel Hill, can't request any tuition increase for in-state undergraduates under a new policy the UNC system's Board of Governors approved this year.
That policy limited tuition increases to 6.5 percent each year but promised to lower the cap if the system received better-than-average funding from the state. The caps don't apply to out-of-state or graduate students, though campuses must justify any proposed increases.
UNC system President Erskine Bowles pushed for the new policy, saying the schools have a responsibility to keep tuition low and state leaders have a responsibility to adequately finance public universities.
One provision of the policy states that the tuition caps for each campus would drop if the schools received more than a 6 percent increase in state funding. For example, an increase of 7 percent would drop a school's tuition cap to 5.5 percent.
Fee increases, excluding those for debt service, still face a 6.5 percent cap.
