Regents to act on tuition proposals

Tuition proposals for the six Kansas Board of Regents universities will be unveiled this week at the regents' meeting, Wednesday, May 15. KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost David Shulenburger will give a short presentation on KU's proposal.

Although the regents won't take final action on the proposals until the board's June 26-27 meeting, the University will notify current and prospective students immediately about KU's proposed new rate.

Full details will be posted online by the afternoon of May 15 at www.ku.edu/tuition/.

The board asked regents universities last fall to develop plans that would use tuition dollars to enhance academic quality. The new rates will go into effect in the fall of 2002.

"No one ever wants a tuition increase," Hemenway said, "but it is necessary if we are to address the serious funding gap of KU in comparison to our peer universities."

KU's current tuition rate of $2,333 is at 66 percent of the national average for state universities, according to a national study recently released by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. It reported the average state university tuition last year was $3,512. Tuition at KU also is significantly lower than tuition at flagship universities in the surrounding states of Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Colorado.

Hemenway said that even with a tuition increase, KU would remain a bargain in comparison with similar universities, both regionally and nationally.

Hemenway and Shulenburger have pledged that 20 percent of tuition revenue generated by the new rates will go toward need-based tuition grants. Financial aid officials expect that the tuition grants will offset the increase for students with additional unmet financial need.

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