For Release November 26
Board of Regents Recommends FY 98' Tuition Rates
PIERRE-The Board of Regents completed a conference call meeting today for the purpose of discussing tuition rates for FY98. The Board took action to plan for a raise in tuition rates of 3% for resident and non-resident undergraduate and graduate students for the 1997-98 academic year.
This decision is consistent with the policy that the Board adopted in FY94 to hold tuition increases to the rate of the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI)-which was 3% in FY96. HEPI is considered to be an accurate portrayal of higher education costs by accounting for purchases necessary for the delivery of higher education.
Currently, the average South Dakota resident undergraduate pays about $1,671 in tuition per year to attend a regental university. The Board's action means that resident undergraduates will be paying approximately $49 more in tuition to attend South Dakota's public universities in 1997-98. Regents' President Karl Wegner said that, "The Board is cognizant of the financial strains of attending college and has worked to keep tuition increases to a minimum while accounting for the needs of our university system. We have to identify reasonable levels of funding to maintain quality programs and instruction for the present and the future." Wegner went on to add that for the past two years tuition increases at South Dakota's public universities have been about half the average rate of increase at public universities nationwide.
The Regents' decision was made earlier than what had been planned in October, explained Regents Executive Director Robert T. Tad Perry. "The Board had decided at its meeting in October to defer a decision on tuition rates until after the Legislature had made its decisions on appropriations. However, earlier this month the Governor requested more detail on tuition rates in preparing his budget address for December 3 and the Board decided to meet early to provide the Governor with some direction," said Perry
The Board meets next at the University of South Dakota on December 12-13. The full tuition and fee rate schedule for FY98 will be decided at the Board's March 1997 meeting.
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