Board of Regents Approves New Tuition for U of M, Other TBR Campuses
For release: June 27, 2003
For press information, contact Curt Guenther

Effective this fall, tuition at the University of Memphis will rise by $265 per semester for undergraduate students who live in Tennessee, as the result of action by the Tennessee Board of Regents, which governs the U of M campus.

The Board was acting on the recommendation of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which suggested that TBR schools raise tuition by 14 percent to help offset cuts in state funding of higher education.

The per-semester increase for other students at the University of Memphis will be:

in-state graduate student, $320
in-state law student, $482
out-of-state undergraduate student, $766
out-of-state graduate student, $821
out-of-state law student, $1,329

University administrators point out that despite the increase, it is still less expensive to attend the U of M than most other public and private schools in the state and that the cost of attending the U of M compares favorably to that of public college and universities in neighboring states.

The tuition increase was approved by the Board in order to make up some of the $57 million that was cut from the state’s appropriations to the TBR system of colleges when the state’s latest budget was approved. However, it will not make up the entire deficit.

In the case of the University of Memphis’s budget, which was cut by $9.6 million, the tuition increase will only make up about $7.8 million of that cut, after the payment is made for such necessary expenditures as increased utility bills, increased insurance premiums, and other costs of operating the University.

Programs at the University of Memphis are of great quality, and they are of great benefit to students, to the Memphis economy, to the state, and to the region. For those programs to continue, they must be supported by adequate funding. As state support declines, alternate sources of funding, including student fees, must increase in order for the University to continue to be able to offer such programs.

Although tuition has risen at Tennessee colleges and universities over the past decade or longer, when adjusted for inflation, the rate of increase is only 4.4.

Also, enrollment at the University has remained relatively steady, indicating that it is still one of the most affordable sources of higher education. U of M enrollment has stayed very near the 20,000-student mark, and approximately 3,000 students graduate from the University every year.

Tennessee universities are not alone in their decision to raise tuition for students. Other nearby state universities are raising tuition by 10 to 16 percent or more, and some states are increasing theirs by much more. Arizona, for example, is set to raise tuition at its public colleges by 40 percent.

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