Regents OK $100 fee, up tuition by 25 percent (w/chart)
April 14, 2009 by Staff reports
Filed under News
The Board of Regents increased tuition by 25 percent, set the full-time tuition rate at 15 credit hours instead of 12, axed the fixed for four plan for incoming freshman and approved a special institutional fee each semester of $100 during its monthly meeting in Atlanta Tuesday.
At the University and Georgia Tech, students who take six hours or less will pay a flat tuition of $1,800 per semester, but students taking in excess of six hours will pay a flat 15-hour tuition rate of $3,035. Full-time in-state students paid $2,428 per semester in fall 2008, which was an 8 percent increase from fall 2007. Students who are on the guarantee will not be affected by this change.
The regents upped the full-time tuition rate to 15 credit hours, meaning students not on the guarantee would pay the per-credit-hour rate for all classes taken up to 15 hours. Students on the guaranteed tuition plan, which began in fall 2006, will not be affected by this change.
Students not on the guaranteed rates this fall will pay per semester $130 per credit hour at the regional and state universities.
“The bulk of freshmen take more than 12 hours,” said Usha Ramachandran, vice chancellor for Fiscal Affairs for the BOR. “Sixty two percent of freshmen take 13 or more credit hours – and that rises to 88 percent at UGA and Tech. The intent of the change to a flat tuition rate of 15 hours at UGA and Tech is to encourage students to take these credits and graduate sooner.”
Fall 2009 freshmen students will pay tuition at the same per-credit-hour rate charged last year, but will be subject to future tuition increases (this does not apply to UGA). Students who enrolled prior to the start of the guaranteed tuition plan in fall 2006 or who come off the guarantee this fall also will pay the fall 2008 per-credit-hour rate.
“We will honor the commitments that already have been made to those students in the guaranteed tuition plan and freeze the per credit hour tuition rate for new students,” said USG Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. “We want to do as much as feasible to help our students in tough times this year, provide our institutions with budget flexibility in future years and help us address our reduced budget picture for Fiscal Year 2010.”
All students, regardless of whether or not they have the tuition guarantee, will pay a mandatory institutional fee to help offset budget reductions.
Students not on the guaranteed rates this fall will pay, per semester, $203 per credit hour at Georgia State University and the Medical College of Georgia, $84 per credit hour at the state colleges and $77 per credit hour at the two-year colleges – the same rate as last year. Also frozen for fall 2009 freshmen are tuition rates at Kennesaw State University, Georgia Southern University, University of West Georgia, and Valdosta State University at $134 per credit hour and at Georgia College & State University at $190 per credit hour and Southern Polytechnic State University at $146 per credit hour.
