UConn proposes $3,200 tuition hike over five years

The University of Connecticut is proposing a plan that will raise in-state tuition by a total $3,200 across the next five years.

UCONN
Katsouleas.
Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

The plan, which will be presented to the Financial Affairs Committee of the UConn Board of Trustees on Dec. 9 and to the full board during its Dec. 11 meeting, increases the in-state tuition by $608 in the fall 2020, followed by a $625 increase in fall 2021, a $642 increase in fall 2022, a $660 increase in fall 2023 and a $679 increase in fall 2024. UConn added that the tuition increase is the lowest in its history. UConn”™s in-state tuition is now $13,798, while out-of-state tuition is $36,466; Connecticut students comprise about 80 percent of UConn”™s student body.

Tuition and fees are used to finance approximately 41 percent of UConn”™s annual operating budget, while the state funds 26 percent and the remaining percentages of the budget come from auxiliary revenue, research grants and philanthropy. The university acknowledged the proposed tuition plan would be adjusted if state funding decreased in the future.

“In my early conversations with Governor (Ned) Lamont and members of the General Assembly, I asked that they do all they could to hold state funding for UConn steady,” UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas said. “That happened for the current fiscal year, and I am hopeful it can continue. As a result, we are able to propose tuition increases that are significantly lower than those enacted in recent years. This reflects the importance of the social contract between the state, its citizens and UConn as Connecticut”™s flagship public university.”

During his inauguration address in October, Katsouleas debuted the Connecticut Commitment program, which will enable a child in a Connecticut family with an annual household income of $50,000 or less to attend UConn tuition-free. The initiative will begin with the fall 2020 semester and will be available for admitted UConn undergraduate freshmen students at all campuses and in all majors, as well as for new transfer students.

UConn stressed that the Connecticut Commitment program had no impact on the proposed tuition increases being presented and the tuition plan would be the same without the program.