By AP/St. Louis Public Radio
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Students at the four-campus University of Missouri system can expect a tuition increase in 2011 for the first time in three years.
The Columbia Missourian reported Monday that university system President Gary Forsee called an increase inevitable during a Board of Curators meeting last week.
State law limits tuition increases to the annual inflation rate.
But the state Department of Higher Education can waive that limitation at the curators' request.
Forsee called it premature to predict the size of the increases for 2011 until Gov. Jay Nixon submits a proposed state budget for the coming fiscal year.
Nixon had brokered a deal with Forsee and other campus leaders the past two years that spared public universities from tuition increases in exchange for flat funding in 2009 and $50 million in cuts this year.