Commission for Higher Education sets target tuition increase rates

How much should tuition increase next year? No more than 3.5 percent, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

The Commission set target tuition increase rates for public universities Friday.

For IU-Bloomington, the target is a 3.5 percent increase; for IUPUI and IU’s other campuses, the target rate is 2.5 percent.

However, this does not necessarily mean tuition will increase at that rate for each campus for the 2011-2012 school year.

“What happened on Friday was that the Commission for Higher Education adopted recommendations and said that each school should not raise tuition more than these suggested percentages,” said Larry MacIntyre,  associate vice president of University Communications.

The IU Board of Trustees is responsible for setting tuition for IU-Bloomington, IUPUI and IU’s regional campuses.

“The Board of Trustees will get a recommendation from President McRobbie, probably in about a week,” MacIntyre said.

By law, the Board of Trustees is then required to hold a public hearing before it sets tuition by vote. The vote will set tuition for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years.

This hearing will allow the public to voice their opinions on the proposed tuition rates before the Board of Trustees. MacIntyre said the meeting is tentatively expected to occur on May 31.

President McRobbie addressed the higher target increase for the
Bloomington campus.

“We must remember that IUPUI is a core campus for IU and has experienced significant growth in recent years in both the number of students and the research done on that campus,” McRobbie said in a press release.

“Regional campuses also have experienced significant growth and these factors must also be weighed. In setting tuition rates, our Trustees will be considering all of these important needs for the University while balancing the equally important issue of affordability,” he said.

MacIntyre said this kind of growth on each campus is a factor in determining the new costs of tuition, as well as the state budget’s funding to each university.

“Every campus has a unique situation,” he said. “Some have rapidly growing enrollments, some don’t. Most regional campuses will not lose anywhere near as much money in the state budget as the Bloomington campus. Some regional campuses will see increases. All of those factors go into the decision.”