Next year's tuition across University of Arkansas System schools will remain the same as this year's for nearly everyone in a rare move prompted by an even rarer global pandemic.
Trustees had recommended the flat tuition and fee rates to chancellors, and a committee approved the proposed flat rates Wednesday.
Rates are unchanged, except for some program increases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a few increases and decreases for specific programs of study at other schools.
The resolution allows trustees to change the rates in the fall, for the spring semester, "should the economic condition necessitate such action."
The flat charges are intended to bring some semblance of relief to students and their families who may be experiencing contracting finances because of the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the economy, such as record unemployment.
Colleges are scrambling to recruit students this fall, as surveys nationwide indicate significant hesitation among high school seniors on attending college as intended.
Tuition and fees have been the primary method of increasing revenue as many states -- although not Arkansas, until the coronavirus pandemic -- have been giving their public institutions less money since the last recession.
Still, tuition and fee increases have been a common yearly event in Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas System is the first among the state's six systems or public universities to set tuition and fee rates for the fall. Some boards of trustees have delayed their spring meetings, in part to give administrators more time to project what their financial realities will be in the fall.
However, leadership at other schools, including the Arkansas State University System, has directed chancellors to keep their tuition and fee rates flat in the fall.
The rates approved Thursday for the UA System include some fee increases and decreases for certain academic programs at some institutions, and new room and board rates for the University of Arkansas Community College at Rich Mountain's first dormitories, opening this fall.
The only tuition rate increases would be at UAMS, which has been hit hard financially by the costs of addressing the pandemic and is staring down a $46 million deficit for next year because of increased costs.
There, undergraduate in-state nursing students would pay 3% more per credit hour, $309 instead of $300, and graduate in-state nursing students would pay 4.9% more, $472 per credit hour versus $450 per credit hour. According to the school's proposal to trustees, leaders expect comparable programs at other schools of medicine to also increase "as they have done so in previous years."
Additionally, the school's students in the certified registered nursing anesthetists program, viewed as having high earning potential, would pay tuition for the first time. They would pay a per-semester tuition of $22,002 if they are in-state students, and $33,000 if they are out-of-state students. That also would come with a new $1,000 enrollment deposit and a $275 liability insurance fee paid during the fall semester.
A Section on 05/22/2020