Tuition across all University of Massachusetts campuses will increase this fall for the first time in three years, ending a pandemic-era freeze as the higher education system’s leaders respond to dark financial clouds on the horizon.
UMass trustees voted 12-2 on Wednesday to approve a package of tuition and fee hikes first proposed at a committee meeting last week. Two student trustees, Derek Houle of UMass Lowell and Narcisse Kunda of UMass Dartmouth, cast the only dissenting votes.
Tens of thousands of in-state undergraduate UMass students face a 2.5% jump in tuition in the 2022-2023 academic year, or between $346 and $395 more per year, as well as increases in room and board costs ranging from 1.9% to 3.9%. Out-of-state undergraduates face roughly similar tuition increases next year, as do all graduate students at the Amherst, Boston and Lowell campuses.
UMass had suspended annual tuition increases on its four non-medical campuses for each of the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, a move that UMass President Marty Meehan on Wednesday estimated led to about $32 million in foregone revenue.
Meehan said seeking another tuition freeze would not be “sustainable” in the current economic climate and with the public university system likely to face higher benefit costs.
“Here is the challenge we are facing: The annual inflation rate in the United States has now accelerated to a four-decade high of 8.5%. That’s the highest increase since December of 1981,” Meehan said at the board of trustees’ Wednesday meeting. “I am also concerned about the possible increase in the fringe benefit assessment by the commonwealth. The student charge adjustment combined with additional cost-saving measures that we hope will be new investment by the commonwealth will help us to confront this challenge.”
UMass officials noted that the average 2.5% tuition increase is significantly lower than the inflation rate.
For in-state undergraduates, combined annual tuition and mandatory fees will increase in fiscal year 2023 to $16,952 at UMass Amherst, $15,172 at UMass Boston, $14,854 at UMass Dartmouth and $16,182 at UMass Lowell. Out-of-state undergraduates face tuition and fees of $38,171 at the Amherst flagship, $36,145 at the Boston campus, $30,992 at Dartmouth and $34,550 in Lowell.
Graduate students also face total increases between 2.3% and 3.1% at Amherst, Boston and Lowell. At UMass Dartmouth, they will instead be subject only to a $100 jump in fees.
Tuition and fee increases will also hit UMass Law and the UMass Chan Medical School.
Meehan said students will collectively share nearly $1 billion in financial aid from federal, state and UMass sources. The university system will provide $373 million of that support, an 8% increase over the previous year and a more than 15% increase since Meehan took over in 2015, he said.
Board members echoed concerns about inflationary pressures on UMass, particularly as the schools work to rebound from pandemic-inflicted strain.
While he said UMass is in “very good fiscal shape,” board of trustees Chair Robert Manning said the system “continue(s) to struggle with enrollment,” which could exacerbate funding headaches moving forward.
“We don’t get a break at UMass because we’re facing another endemic problem of hyper-inflation, and that’s going to hit us in many regards,” Manning said. “It’s going to increase the cost of our debt financing. It’s going to increase food costs at all of our campuses. It’s going to increase labor costs and energy costs, and it’s really going to be another difficult period where we’re going to have to be very fiscally responsible to get through this.”
