By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
Jefferson City, Mo. – The Missouri Board of Curators has voted to keep in-state tuition for University of Missouri System undergraduates at current levels next year, but raise tuition for nonresidents and for graduate students.
The move honors a deal made by Governor Jay Nixon to freeze tuition in exchange for limiting budget cuts to around $50 million, and it comes days after the State Senate reversed plans to make deeper cuts.
University of Missouri System president Gary Forsee doesn't think lawmakers will change their minds again as they continue working on the state budget.
"Certainly if something were to change, that would be something that we would have to take back up with the Board of Curators, but both (the) House and Senate passed (the tuition freeze deal)," Forsee said.
Meanwhile, out-of-state tuition will rise five percent on the Columbia and Rolla campuses, and 2.7 percent at St. Louis and Kansas City.
"Allie," who would not give us her last name, is a Michigan resident enrolled at the Missouri Science and Technology campus in Rolla.
"I'm going to have to try to get in-state tuition, like, as soon as possible, because that's ridiculous...I'll still come here, but I don't know...that's going to suck a lot," Allie said.
Tuition for graduate students, both in-state and out-of-state, will also rise 2.7 percent at all four University of Missouri campuses. And there will be significant increases in fees for medical, law and graduate-level business courses.