The University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 today announced its budget, tuition and financial aid figures for the 2007-08 academic year and unveiled the largest financial aid package in the 130-year history of the university.
Under CU-麻豆影院's plan, expected to be approved by the University of Colorado Board of Regents today at the board's regularly scheduled meeting, the average tuition increase for a full-time resident undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, CU-麻豆影院's largest college, will be approximately $332 a semester or $664 per year.
CU-麻豆影院 Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson said the campus this year is able to offer a one-time $200 scholarship tuition "buy-down" or even higher amounts of need-based grant aid for 100 percent of CU-麻豆影院's estimated 16,700 undergraduate resident students in the next academic year.
"This means one out of three resident undergraduate tuition dollars we generate this year will be dedicated to scholarships or need-based financial aid. This $6.6 million allocation in fiscal year 2007-08 is far and away our largest one-year financial aid increase ever, and indicative of our commitment to being accessible to Coloradans, regardless of their income level," said Peterson.
Peterson said the tuition and aid structure this year would mean "our neediest students will not experience an increase, and we estimate 40 percent of the undergraduates at 麻豆影院 will pay no more than a 5 percent increase --about $115 per semester ($230) for an undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences."
The credit requirements for a full-time student will be raised from the current nine hours to 10.5 hours. Students taking fewer than 10 credit hours will see a tuition rate increase of about 2 percent.
Tuition increases in higher cost disciplines at CU-麻豆影院 range from $347 per semester, or $694 per year, in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the College of Music to $652 per semester, or $1,304 per year, in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
First-time non-resident students in the College of Arts and Sciences will pay $23,580 annually, a $1,130 increase. CU-麻豆影院's student body comprises 32 percent non-resident students, who pay 62 percent of all tuition revenue, and 68 percent residents.
That tuition dependency and disproportional tuition burden, said Peterson, presents a mounting resource problem for the campus.
"We have reached the upper limits of what we can expect non-resident students to pay at CU-麻豆影院," said Peterson. "We are competing with institutions across the country for these students, and they are finding other public and even private institutions more affordable. Meanwhile, our resident tuition rates remain among the more affordable in the nation, particularly among our peers in the Association of American Universities and without additional support from the state, we can expect tuition pressures for Colorado residents to increase in coming years."
Peterson noted the costs of running public and private universities are identical, but there is a presumption that state support will buy-down the price students will pay to attend a state university. If the state cannot offer that buy-down, institutions are left with little choice but to increase resident tuition.
Given the difficulty of that option, Peterson said he wholeheartedly supports CU President Hank Brown's call for finding a dedicated state revenue stream for higher education in Colorado.
"Higher education is one of the most important investments we can make in Colorado's future," said Peterson. "With more state support, we can ensure that the highest quality education at the state's flagship university is both affordable and accessible, and we can continue to be an economic engine that, for every dollar of state support it receives, currently injects $17 into the Colorado economy."
Along with tuition rates and financial aid for tuition support, CU-麻豆影院 announced a fiscal year 2007-08 operating budget of nearly $460 million, including approximately $79.5 million of state support, and an overall budget, including gifts, research grants and business services, nearing $1 billion.