Since 2012, the University of Wisconsin System has not increased tuition for in-state students. In a meeting with the board overseeing the UW System at the end of March, that changed. In-state students in all UW colleges will see an average 5% increase in tuition for the coming school years.
This increase results in in-state students at UW schools paying thousands of extra dollars in tuition per year. At UW-Madison, students can expect to pay a $9,646 increase. Student fees, meal plans and housing are also increasing by an average of $600 to $800 depending on the campus.
This average tuition increase does not account for program-based increases, which are primarily affecting STEM majors. These program-based increases are about $2,000 for science, technology, engineering or math majors.
These increases are hefty, not including the increase for out-of-state student tuition of about 2.5% to 5.6%. Both in-state and out-of-state students are now going to pay thousands of extra dollars in tuition, housing and meal plan costs for essentially the same level of education they were getting before.
The UW System Board argues that this change was necessary and that the tuition freeze was not sustainable with rising inflation and the need to pay professors more. The system says it relies primarily on tuition funds to pay for operation costs. But, this rationale is not sufficient enough to warrant the incredible increase in tuition.
For the past few years now, UW campuses have been accepting far too many students, especially out-of-state students. UW-Madison has over-admitted the freshman class for the past two years, creating serious space issues and causing UW-Madison to force students to live in triples or the Lowell Center.
Source : Badger Herald
