(The Center Square) – Tuition for out of state undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill was increased during Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Governors.
Costs remain the same for in-state students in the entire university system. It marked the ninth straight year without a tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students, Andy Wallace, spokesman for the university system, told The Center Square.
“UNC System is the only system in the country able to say that,” Wallace said.
The increases approved Thursday will bring the out-of-state tuition at Chapel Hill to $43,152. The revenue from the increase would be used for faculty and staff retention, academic support, campus safety, and to “offset the inflationary impacts on contracted services,” according to the university system.
Chapel Hill received 51,181 first-year applications from out-of-state residents for admission in the fall of 2024, according to the university system.
Only 18% of first-year slots at Chapel Hill are available for out-of-state and international students, leaving 82% for in-state residents.
The university system governing board also kept tuition the same – $500 per semester – at Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Western Carolina University in the NC Promise program.
The NC Promise Program has “increased educational access, reduced student debt, and grown the state’s economy,” the university system says on its website.
The percentage of bachelor’s degree students in the UNC System with federal loan debt at graduation is actually dropping, Wallace added. It has gone from 61.2% in 2018-19 to 49.9% in 2023-24, the spokesman said.
In their request for tuition increases this year for out of state students and some in-state graduate students, North Carolina universities cited inflation as a factor.
Appalachian State, for example, was approved Thursday for a 3% increase for both in- and out-of-state graduate students and all out-of-state undergraduates.
“Revenues resulting from this increase will be used to offset the impacts of inflation on supplies, materials, and services, to invest in classroom equipment and technology, and to provide for new faculty and academic advisor positions to support the growing student population at the Boone and Hickory campuses,” a university system document states.
