U-M Regents Vote To Raise Tuition 1.6 Percent For In-State Students
ANN ARBOR (WWJ) -- The University of Michigan is the latest institution to announce an increase in student tuition for the coming school year.
The University Board of Regents unanimously approved a 1.6 percent tuition increase for in-state students this week, along with a 3.4 percent increase for out-of-state students.
Regent Mark Bernstein said that the move is directly tied to a need for greater state "higher education" funding.
"We have 15 of the best public universities in the country in this state and we are struggling mightily to keep them at that elite level -- to make them affordable, to make them accessible and to make them exceptional," Bernstein said. "We need the state's help to do that."
Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Saginaw Valley State University have already approved tuition increases of over 3 percent, while the state's two other research universities, Michigan State and Wayne State, have yet to set rates for the fall.
The increase of 1.6 percent for in-state students would still be less than the rate of inflation, but is still greater than the university's increase from the 2013-14 school year. The difference would amount to about $210 more for the average student, who would pay about $13,000 per year to attend school in Ann Arbor.
University of Michigan Board of Regent chairwoman Andrea Fischer Newman said that although the vote was unanimous, it was a difficult one.
"The biggest question that we get is that we increase the funding for higher education and yet you're still raising tuition -- when does that end?" Fischer Newman said.
