HELENA – Montana’s two universities are asking the Board of Regents to approve raising tuition for nonresidents and fees for all students — leaving open the question of resident tuition costs.
Both Montana State University and the University of Montana are presenting their tuition and fee requests to the regents on Thursday in Great Falls. The regents may then vote on the college costs set to take effect in 2010 on Friday.
Through the state Constitution, the regents have control over the budget — and tuition prices — for the state university system, which includes eight campuses and three community colleges.
Tuition, currently averaging an annual $3,936 for state residents at the schools, was frozen over the last two years through an initiative sponsored by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The governor has been pressing for that freeze to continue for at least another two years, and is expected to make the pitch again before the board on Thursday afternoon.
The university’s preliminary requests do not specify how much in-state students will have to pay during the next two years.
But administrators at both schools have said college costs must rise in order to maintain existing services and programs. And elected student leaders said at a recent hearing before the regents that they would rather see bill increases than program cuts.
For its four campuses, Montana State University has proposed increases in out-of-state tuition between 0 percent and 4.1 percent. The University of Montana, meanwhile, is asking for an increase of between 0 percent and 8.51 percent on nonresident students at its four locations.
Nonresident students already pay more than students who are residents of Montana. On average, annual tuition for a nonresident currently sits at $15,504.
The universities are also requesting fee increases for all students, ranging from 1.5 percent to 20.7 percent.
The state Legislature used state and federal stimulus dollars to increase funding for the university system by about $12 million, far short of the $30 million education officials estimated was needed to keep current services intact.