Board approves tuition hikes at UNC system campuses

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The UNC Board of Governors on Friday approved tuition increases for 2009-10 at all 16 campuses in the University of North Carolina system.

All but two of the 32 voting members of the board voted in favor of the increases, which average to a 3.9 percent rise in undergraduate tuition.

The rate increase, less than a third of what the universities had requested, could still be changed by state lawmakers if they choose to do so.

Under the hike, undergraduates will pay as little as $71 more at East Carolina University to as much as $432 more at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. (See how other universities and colleges will be affected by the increase.)

Tuition for in-state undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Fayetteville State University will increase 4.3 percent, while North Carolina State University's will increase 2.4 percent. North Carolina Central University's in-state tuition will go up 2.1 percent.

The increases comes as each university faces budget cuts because of a projected $2 billion deficit in the state budget. State budget officials have told the university system to expect budget cuts up to 7 percent this year because of the sour economy.

Tuition increases are a way to offset some of the reduced funding, but UNC President Erskine Bowles urged that tuition increases be kept as low as possible.