UNC Governors Approve Tuition, Fee Hikes

Tuition at some schools, including UNC-Chapel Hill, will remain at current levels, while costs at other schools will increase more than the average.

The governors also approved an average 1.5 percent increase for out-of-state undergraduates as well as what a system spokeswoman characterized as "quite low" average increases for in-state and out-of-state graduate students.

Required fees will rise an average of 4.5 percent across the system. With that increase and the tuition increase, the system calculated that the average bill for an in-state undergraduate will be 2.1 percent higher for 2008-09.

At North Carolina State University, for example, tuition will go up 2.7 percent for in-state undergraduates. N.C. State’s Tuition Advisory Council recommended a 6.5 percent increase for in-state undergraduates, but Chancellor James Oblinger said he wanted to limit any increase to 2.7 percent.

"We are conscientiously trying to manage costs and maintain the quality programs that we have," Oblinger said.

N.C. State students staged a sit-in at the committee meeting Thursday to protest rising tuition costs. Some said they can accept the 2.7 percent increase, however.

UNC System President Erskine Bowles said he was pleased with 1.2 percent for in-state undergrads.

"That's terrific, you know, when you think that our inflationary costs are rising at a much higher rate than that," he said. "The only reason that we can keep tuition down to where we are keeping it is because we have a very generous legislature that provided us resources."

Tuition increases across the UNC system averaged 5.2 percent last year, down from the 12.1 percent average increase in 2006-07.

UNC-Chapel Hill students also were pleased with the idea of no tuition increase next year.

"I am very excited for my parents," student Jenny Scholl said with a laugh.

"That would be fantastic. I would really be happy about that," student Emma Horesovsky said of the proposal the governors approved. "I was at a private school, and one of the reasons I left is that tuition kept going up on me."