It’s tuition-setting season for Oregon’s colleges and universities and the cost of getting a higher education in the state is going up.
Oregon’s largest public postsecondary schools, including Oregon State University, Portland State University and the University of Oregon are all raising tuition for the 2024-2025 school year.
The Board of Trustees for OSU voted Friday to raise tuition costs for resident undergraduate students at its Corvallis campus by 4.91%. Undergrads at the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend will see a similar increase of 4.7%. These hikes equal out to a $11 to $12 increase per credit hour.
Under OSU’s cohort model, costs vary depending on when a student enrolled. Tuition levels for the 2024-25 school year will range from $11,325 for a resident student who’s been enrolled since before July 2020 to $12,045 for someone entering the university for the first time this fall.
Trustees at Portland State also met Friday and approved a tuition increase of 4.8% for resident undergraduate students. UO’s trustees voted on a 3% rise in tuition for new undergraduates in March.
Both OSU and Portland State’s hikes come in just under a 5% tuition increase ceiling. Approving a steeper increase would trigger a review and require the approval of the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
All three schools raised tuition rates last year.
In Friday’s meeting, OSU senior leaders said the school needed to increase tuition to keep up with inflation, the rising costs of labor and expected expenses from the university’s new strategic plan.
“It pains us greatly to have to raise tuition,” said board member Román Hernández at the meeting. “But in order to accomplish the mission of the institution, that’s what we have to do sometimes.”
OSU’s graduate students will also pay more in tuition costs next school year, anywhere from a 2-7% increase depending on which graduate program they are in. Tuition rates are rising by 4.65% for students studying online as part of OSU’s Ecampus.
An earlier tuition setting proposal from OSU’s budget committee called for a 7.05% increase in tuition next year, which is above the board’s preferred range of a 2-5% annual increase. Instead, OSU President Jayathi Murthy recommended a lower rate to maintain affordability for students and to help increase retention and graduation rates at the school. But OSU tuition and fee setting documents note that a lower rate now could translate to higher tuition increases in the coming years. The university’s new 10-year business forecast operates on the assumption of a 7% increase in tuition for the 2025-26 school year and increases of 3.5% thereafter.
Mike Green, OSU’s chief financial officer, said the school plans to increase institutional aid for its students to over $100 million to help make up for increased student costs.
That fact did little to relieve OSU’s Board of Trustees’ sole student member, Kassy Bonanno. She said students are also feeling the impacts of inflation, with many struggling to meet their basic needs like food, housing and transportation. Bonanno was also concerned about student participation in the school’s tuition-setting process.
“We need more creative ways of paying for things beyond tuition,” said Bonanno at the Friday meeting. “We did not have robust student participation in the tuition setting process and that needs to change.”
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