The board the governs the three state universities will consider a tuition increase of 5% at its meeting Thursday in Iowa City. The Board of Regents says it has held recent tuition increases to well below the national average of 6.9% with increases of 3.4%, 4.4% and then 6.5% last fall despite cuts in state funding.
The regents staff says no state in the nation has seen a bigger cut to higher education with the 21-percent cut imposed in 2010. And the regents staff says the universities have absorbed over $118-million in permanent budget reductions in the last two-and-a-half years.
The board says the governor’s budget proposal would cut another 6% to the universities in the next fiscal year. They says they will not know the final state appropriation until the legislative session ends. The board says it may have to adjust the proposed 5% tuition increase if the funding is cut further.