Arkansas Tech University's board of trustees voted Tuesday to increase tuition by 3.19 percent for undergraduate students on the school's Russellville campus.
The board also approved some fee increases, including one that amounts to $2.50 per semester credit hour for athletics.
Undergraduate tuition will rise from $219 per semester credit hour this school year to $226 per hour in 2017-18. A typical undergraduate takes 15 hours per semester, meaning tuition for that student will go from $3,285 to $3,390 per semester.
Tuition for graduate and doctoral students will increase from $274 per semester credit hour this school term to $284 per hour in 2017-18.
Tuition on the university's Ozark campus, which offers a two-year program, will increase from $118 per semester credit hour this term to $122 per hour in 2017-18.
The university said in a news release that tuition rates will continue to be doubled for out-of-state students who do not qualify for a waiver.
In a statement, Arkansas Tech President Robin Bowen advised students and their families "that tuition and fee increases are carefully and seriously considered as part of the budgeting process and again when they are presented to our Board of Trustees."
The increase comes as higher-education leaders across the nation are focusing on access, success and affordability for students. In Arkansas, the three areas are the focus of a new state funding method for public colleges and universities that is set to start July 1, 2018.
Colleges and universities nationwide have become more dependent on tuition and fee revenue as state appropriations have dropped or stagnated through the years.
The University of Arkansas board of trustees recently approved raising tuition and fee rates for its system, ranging from a low of 2.74 percent at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, to a high of 8.02 percent for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Other public universities within the state also have raised tuition and fee rates, from 1.83 percent at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia to 3.65 percent at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Arkansas State University trustees are scheduled to meet in June.
Arkansas Tech's increases are part of a $161.1 million operating budget the board authorized for the 2017-18 fiscal year.
"The additional revenue created by the increases approved by the board will be reinvested in our students in a manner consistent with our strategic plan and our focus on student success," Bowen said.
The board also approved the final phase of a two-year plan to eliminate the athletic transfer fee for students on the Russellville campus and to replace it with an athletic student fee of $18 per semester credit hour in 2017-18 -- an increase of $2.50 per hour when both athletic-related fees this term are totaled.
The athletic transfer fee this term was $5.50 per semester credit hour. Instead of being paid directly by students, the money was transferred from their tuition dollars, spokesman Sam Strasner said in an email. In addition, Arkansas Tech this term also charged students a direct $10 athletic fee.
In the next term, the athletic transfer fee will be eliminated and replaced with the $18 hourly fee, representing a total $270 per-semester cost for a student taking 15 hours.
Among other increases approved Tuesday were an extra $1 per hour for the facilities fee and an additional $1 per-hour fee for the instructional support fee, raising them to $16 and $10, respectively. The board also approved two new fees, a $1 per-semester-hour library fee and a $2 per-semester-hour public-safety fee.
Bernadette Hinkle, the university's vice president for administration and finance, said the library fee will allow an expansion of digital research subscription offerings, archival software and library book inventory.
"The public safety fee will help support operational costs to include a communication center, deferred maintenance, security improvements, student success programming, fulfillment of strategic plan goals and mass notification goals," Hinkle said in the release.
Fee increases at the Ozark campus include $1 per credit-hour more for the technology fee and the instructional support fee as well as a $3 per credit-hour increase in the career and technical education general technology fee. The increases are intended to support computer services and infrastructure, library needs, and laboratory and software purchases, the university said.
State Desk on 05/31/2017