Four years ago, the tuition process for UNC-system schools was unpredictable and chaotic.
But UNC-system President Erskine Bowles’ Four Year Tuition Plan changed that.
The plan makes tuition more affordable and predictable for students, setting caps on campus-initiated tuition increases and laying out a framework for campuses to use the revenue from the increases.
Four Year Tuition Plan basics
The plan: Approved by the UNC-system Board of Governors in 2006, the tuition policy requires universities to:
-Cap undergraduate resident increases at 6.5 percent
-Keep rates for undergraduate residents in the bottom quartile of each campus’ public peers and below the top-quarter for non-resident undergraduate students
-Use 25 percent of the new tuition revenue for need-based financial aid and another 25 percent for increasing faculty salaries
The UNC-system Board of Governors will be reviewing the plan in the upcoming months and making recommendations, which could mean an increase in tuition, changes to how campuses can use the tuition money or no change at all.
“People seem pretty pleased (with the plan), but that doesn’t mean we can’t tweak it. I don’t think we have to go back to ground zero,” said John Davis III, chairman of the board’s budget and finance committee, which will most likely be in charge of the review.
Bob Winston, chairman of the Board of Trustees at UNC-CH, said he wants the Board of Governors to consider increasing the 6.5 percent cap on undergraduate residents for schools like UNC-CH that are well below peer schools in tuition rates.
“We’ve won Kiplinger’s best value university for 11 years in a row. Certainly there’s headroom,” Winston said.
But Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the board, said in an e-mail that she doesn’t anticipate a change in the cap despite that.