PUHI — If a proposed tuition increase is approved by the University of Hawai‘i board of regents, UH-Manoa and Kaua‘i Community College students and their families can expect to pay a bit more for their education.
Linda Johnsrud, interim vice president for academic planning and policy for the University of Hawai‘i, announced at a meeting yesterday at KCC that the board of regents has proposed $8 and $36 per-credit increases to the tuition rates for KCC and UH-Manoa, respectively, for the next five school years, beginning with 2006-07.
Those increases by 2011 will nearly double the current tuition for a fulltime student.
For example, a KCC student carrying a 15-credit load will pay $735 for the fall semester of 2005-06 school year. In the 2006-07 school year, that same semester will cost $855. In 2007-08, the semester’s tuition will be $975. In 2008-09, the per-semester tuition will jump to $1,095. In 2009-10, per-semester tuition would be $1,215. And in 2010-11, per-semester tuition would rise to $1,335 (please see chart).
About a dozen students and parents attended the meeting, though none gave testimony. After the meeting, at least one student who did not want to be identified said the increases would price him right out of the UH system, and another who complained that the financial-aid increases proposed won’t help most students because such aid is geared for low-income students.
The increase will raise the tuition to the point of being comparable to national and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) averages, Johnsrud said. It will also account for the state administration and state Legislature not appropriating monies in relation to student enrollment, she said.
“By 2011, tuition will cover 23 percent of the cost of a person’s education,” she said. “The cost borne by the family will increase, but the state still subsidizes a good portion of it.”
Other increases will include professional fees for nursing, dental hygiene, business and architecture students, as well as a student information technology fee. The professional fees vary. The IT fee will cost $10 per credit hour.
“The benefit to earmarking those fees is that the money will go directly to up-grade student support and technology service,” Johnsrud said.
The tuition increase will improve the core needs of the students, including hiring and retaining a high level of faculty, increasing the number of classes offered, and decreasing the number of students per class, Johnsrud said.
In addition, leaders at individual campuses will be able to make improvements based on campus-specific needs.
In increasing the tuition, the proposal also allows for a quadrupling of the needs-based financial aid available.
Currently, $4.8 million is available in needs-based financial aid (for low-income students). By 2011, that number will reach $20.7 million.
Formal testimonies and comments about the proposed tuition increases are being accepted through this Friday, April 1. They can be e-mailed to tuition@hawaii.edu, or mailed to Academic Planning and Policy, University of Hawai‘i, 2444 Dole St., Bachman 204, Honolulu, HI 96822.
- To learn more about the proposal, please visit www.hawaii.edu/ovppp/tuition.
- Wendy Bedwell-Wilson, lifestyle writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226) or wwilson@pulitzer.net.
