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UM curators approve flat tuition for in-state students this fall

Millennium Student Center at UMSL
File: Dale Singer | St. Louis Public Radio

Tuition at the University of Missouri’s four campuses will remain flat this fall for in-state undergraduate students.

Meeting via conference call, the university’s curators unanimously approved the no-increase plan Wednesday morning. It had originally been proposed during their meeting on the St. Louis campus in December, but final action was delayed until the legislature voted on appropriations for the university.

The higher education budget for the coming school year, which has been signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, includes a cut to the university’s administration but an overall increase to the four-campus system because it meets performance goals.

Tuition for resident undergraduate students at UM this fall will average $9,411, ranging from $9,165 at Kansas City to $9,544 at Rolla. Tuition at the St. Louis campus will be $9,500, while tuition at Mizzou will be $9,437.

Tuition for non-resident undergraduate students will rise 3 percent at each of the campuses.

The curators also gave unanimous approval to fee increases at all four campuses, by varying amounts.

At UMSL, the fee for students in the joint engineering program with Washington University jumped by $100 to $170. Asked about the increase, Brian Burnett, the university system’s vice president for finance, said that the sharp rise brings what students pay more in line with the actual cost of the program.

“It’s a very high-cost program,” Burnett said. “It’s a very important partnership for the UMSL campus, and it’s obviously taking advantage of Washington University’s facilities and infrastructure to provide engineering programs that we couldn’t provide in the St. Louis market if not for this program.

“While it’s not ideal, I don’t believe that UMSL believes that this change will affect the enrollment in those areas, because a lot of these are working students at companies that pay for their education to get their bachelor’s degree in engineering.”

Burnett said the increase also will help ease the budget crunch at UMSL.

“Given the challenges that the St. Louis campus has, they need to make this adjustment to this high-cost program that actually provides a tremendous benefit to these students.”

If the curators had sought to raise in-state undergraduate by more than the rate of inflation, which was 0.7 percent in December of last year, state law requires that they would have had to seek a waiver from the state Department of Higher Education.

The University of Missouri’s Board of Curators holds the license for St. Louis Public Radio.

Follow Dale on Twitter: @dalesinger

Dale Singer began his career in professional journalism in 1969 by talking his way into a summer vacation replacement job at the now-defunct United Press International bureau in St. Louis; he later joined UPI full-time in 1972. Eight years later, he moved to the Post-Dispatch, where for the next 28-plus years he was a business reporter and editor, a Metro reporter specializing in education, assistant editor of the Editorial Page for 10 years and finally news editor of the newspaper's website. In September of 2008, he joined the staff of the Beacon, where he reported primarily on education. In addition to practicing journalism, Dale has been an adjunct professor at University College at Washington U. He and his wife live in west St. Louis County with their spoiled Bichon, Teddy. They have two adult daughters, who have followed them into the word business as a communications manager and a website editor, and three grandchildren. Dale reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2013 to 2016.