Tuition rising for UW System students by up to 5%

WISCONSIN (CIVIC MEDIA) – Tuition will rise for students in the Universities of Wisconsin System. 

At a meeting Thursday, UW System Regents voted unanimously to increase tuition by up to 5 percent across the board.  The system is dealing with cuts from the National Institutes of Health, the biggest public funder of research in the world, as well as the Trump Administration. State universities only a received a small increase in funding from the newly-approved state budget.

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said the budget also includes hiring limits.

This legislation poses quite [a] significant challenge for us … We would become a potential poaching ground quickly, and we would be unable to recruit in some of the very high-needs areas that we all view as a priority.

UW System President Jay Rothman said UW is the most affordable public university system in the Midwest. Even so, Wisconsin ranks 44th in the nation for state higher education funding. 

This was a difficult recommendation for me to make as well, because we’re trying to balance understanding that the state supports one-fifth of our budget, about 20%. There was a time that it supported 44% of our budget. And as that funding has gone down, for reasons notwithstanding the increase that we got this time, that’s simply a fact. And tuition has become a bigger part of our revenue.

Tuitions for UW schools are as follows:

• UW-Eau Claire: $10,067
• UW-Green Bay: $8,985
• UW-La Crosse: $10,360
• UW-Madison: $12,166
• UW-Milwaukee: $10,916
• UW-Oshkosh: $8,993
• UW-Parkside: $8,658
• UW-Platteville: $8,812
• UW-River Falls: $9,249
• UW-Stevens Point: $9,477
• UW-Stout: $9,859
• UW-Superior: $9,272
• UW-Whitewater: $8,819

This is the third year in a row that students will pay higher tuition. They’ll start seeing that increase in the fall.