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Regents OK $31 million tuition, fee hike 

By Nikie Johnson
Senior Staff Writer

A $31 million increase in tuition and fees for next year was approved Thursday by the Board of Regents.

That equals an average increase of $885 per student per year, assuming enrollment remains at around 35,000 students.

Many of the increases are based on the number of credit hours taken, so the amount the increase affects each student will vary depending course load.

About $4.4 million will come from a tuition increase. That change is set by the state to be effected every year.

The remaining $26.6 million will come from increases in fees, some of which will be assessed to all students and some of which will be assessed by college. The cost of parking and on-campus housing will also increase slightly.

The regents, who approve the tuition and fee increases every year, passed the changes unanimously.

Vice President for Student Affairs Elwyn Lee said after the meeting that this fee increase represents a "great experiment."

A bad economy usually means more students will be enroll in college, he said, but that assumes they will have the money to afford higher education.

He stressed that, with the rising costs of college at UH and other universities across the country, scholarships and financial aid must increase to continue to help students afford higher education.

"Weill be making every effort to see that there is more financial aid available so that students already going (to UH) wonit have to drop out," Lee said.

In addition to the increase at UHis main campus, UH-Downtown will raise tuition and fees by $3.4 million, UH-Clear Lake by $2.4 million and UH-Victoria by $700,000.

-- with additional reporting by Ray Hafner, senior staff writer
 

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