(The Center Square) – Most colleges and universities in the University of North Carolina System are requesting tuition hikes for the next academic year, averaging 2.7% for in-state students and 4.3% for those from out of state.
Next month the Board of Governors will vote on them. In-state students have not had an increase since 2019.
For in-state students, any increase in tuition would be the first since 2019.
The institutions are allowed to request up to 3% increases for in-state tuition for undergraduates. There is no limit on the percentage of increase that can be requested for undergraduate out-of-state students, although the schools must justify the need for the increase and why the increase is not expected to negatively impact enrollment.
The Board of Governors also requires that for in-state residents, all universities remain in the bottom 25% in tuition “when compared to their undergraduate resident peers.”
Half of the universities in the UNC System are lowest among their peer schools.
“Institutions could increase by an average of $2,580 and still remain in the bottom quartile,” the university system wrote in a presentation to the Board of Governors this week. “UNC institutions have always been more affordable than their peers. And the gap is growing.”
For 2026-27, requested increases for in-state undergraduate students ranges from 0% to 3%. For out of state, the range is 2%-10%.
“Raising tuition should be a last resort decision and action that we take,” board member Woody White said this week.
He said the board should approach requests for increases with a “burden of proof aspect from campus to campus.”
That approach is more burdensome and time consuming, Wood said.
The board last year gave the institutions a “green light” to ask for tuition hikes, Wood said.
The review should determine for each campus, “what the money will be used for and why it is absolutely necessary,” White said.
“Inflation – that speaks for itself,” White said. “It’s been managed obviously over the last decade without too much of a problem. Why is it necessary this year to have tuition increases?”
But another board member, John Fraley, had a different opinion, saying the university system has been “kicking the can down the road” by not raising tuition.
He said, “I don’t see that we get a lot of benefit from having eight of our institutions to be dead last in their peer group as far as tuition and fees, for there to be five next to the lowest, and three second to the lowest.”
He also expressed confidence that the university leaders would only increase tuition increases that are necessary to properly run their institutions.
“I think it’s time for us to vote on this next month and move on,” Fraley said.
