NIU Board of Trustees approves 2005-06 tuition rates

NIU's Board of Trustees last week approved tuition rates for students enrolling during the 2005-06 academic year.

New undergraduate students enrolling in 15 hours of classes per semester will pay $5,061 in tuition for the 2005-06 academic year, up 9.75 percent compared to new students last year.

The differing increases in tuition are due to the Truth-in-Tuition law, which went into effect in 2004. Under the law, incoming students are guaranteed that the tuition rate quoted their freshman year will remain fixed for eight consecutive semesters, or four years, compelling universities to predict average cost increases over that period of time. NIU has elected to add an additional “grace semester” to that guarantee, locking tuition rates for nine semesters.

Tuition for students enrolled prior to the fall 2004 implementation of Truth-in-Tuition will be considered separately until that cohort has graduated.

Statewide, public universities raised tuition for new students by an average of about 11.3 percent, ranging from a low of 7.7 percent at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to 29 percent at Northeastern Illinois University .

NIU officials said that the increase was necessary to offset the impact of a state budget that provides no new money for higher education this year.

“This is the second straight year that the state has frozen our funding,” said NIU President John Peters. “While that is certainly better than the cuts we have endured in recent years, it still does nothing to help us keep pace with inflation. We have developed a tuition plan this year that keeps an NIU degree affordable, while maintaining the value of that degree.”

The new rates bring the typical cost for a newly enrolled undergraduate student living in a campus residence hall to about $12,200 a year.

The board also set tuition rates for graduate students and law students, raising each 6.75 percent.

6-20-05