University of Minnesota approves highest tuition hike in a decade

In a divided vote among its Board of Regents, the University of Minnesota has approved its largest tuition hike in over a decade.

This decision was taken during Thursday's board meeting , and will require undergraduate students to pay 4.5% more than the current tuition on the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses.

Crookston, Duluth and Morris campuses will see an increase of tuition by 1.5%., while nonresident undergraduate students will see the biggest increase at 5.5%.

Tuition for at the Twin Cities campus in the coming around $15,148 for Twin Cities students next academic year while nonresident students would be paying $1,886 more than their out-of state rate, bringing the cost to $36,296 a year to study at the Twin Cities campus.

The lowest price of tuition will be at the U's Crookston campus in northwestern Minnesota, which will cost $11,648 a year.

According to the Star Tribune, the increases represent the highest hike in tuition since 2012-13, and comes on the heels of a 3.5% increase in tuition for the Twin Cities campus that passed last year.

In the budget meeting , Regents admit that the raised tuition is "larger than originally planned and proposed," is due to not receiving the additional $45 million in state funding they requested this year, with the legislature unable to pass a funding package before the end of the legislative session.

"No one likes to see tuition increases," Regent Mary Davenport said during the meeting. "And that conversation to me goes hand-in-hand with quality and we are a high quality system. My view is that the tuition increase is reasonably fair in the budget proposal."

When discussing the budget for the next academic year, Regents noted that there will also be a wage increase for undergraduate student employees, beginning at $15.23. The pay for student workers will be reviewed every year.

Assistant Budget Director Koryn Zewers told regents that the University will use $1.4 million to help offset anticipated decreases in state aid for low-income students.