Despite student outcry, the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees has approved an increase in fees for out-of-state students at its board meeting on Thursday.
The Florida Board of Governors opened the door for all of Florida’s public universities to increase out-of-state fees in June. All of Florida’s twelve public universities and colleges are now allowed to increase out-of-state fees by 10% this year, and 15% next year.
Florida State University, Florida International University and University of Florida have already approved the 10% increase in out-of-state fees. The University of South Florida voted Wednesday to increase the fees.
Incoming out-of-state UCF student Dylan Beaudreau spoke to the trustees before their vote, describing the financial burden this puts on his family.
“This proposal means having to come up with an extra $1,500 before the August 29 tuition deadline that's less than a month from today, and most students don't have the kind of flexibility built into their budgets for $1,500 especially after paying for housing, deposits, orientation fees and travel,” said Beaudreau.
Beaudreau also said the change could and should have been shared by in-state students.
“Out-of-state students make up only about 8% of UCF’s population, yet we're being asked to cover the full, I think it was $7.6 million increase. If that same amount was spread across all students, that would only be an increase of about $111,” said Beaudreau.
With their vote, the Board of Trustees approved a 10% increase in fees for both out-of-state graduate and undergraduate students for the first time at UCF since 2012.
Out-of-state undergraduate tuition at UCF will go up by 7.3%, and out-of-state graduate tuition will go up by 6.9%.
Out-of-state tuition for medical students at the school will grow by 4.8%.
In a statement, UCF said these increases are needed to, “maintain the quality of our academic and student support services in response to rising costs.”
“The purpose of this increase is to adjust out-of-state student fees to better reflect the increasing costs of hiring additional faculty, providing instruction, and improving student services at UCF.”
The change is expected to bring in an additional $7.6 million in gross revenue for the university, and will take effect immediately starting this fall semester, under an emergency amendment to the university’s procedures.
UCF said it will work directly with the over 3,900 students impacted.
However, the board of trustees and President Alexander Cartwright admitted at the meeting that there was no plan in place as of yet to help these students, besides for a number they can call if they need financial assistance.
“One of the things that I'll ask my team to make sure that we do is that on any communication that goes to them, that the contact information as to where they should contact and who they should contact is as clear as possible. We will do that. We'll make sure that there's communication that says, here's who you contact, here's how you get help from the university,” said Cartwright.
Cartwright did reiterate, however, his commitment to these out-of-state students.
“And I think this is what I'm hearing from the board, is we want to keep our students, and we want them to come to this university, so our out-of-state students, we do want them to come to this university, and what we will do is we are committed to working with them as closely as possible. You have our commitment that we're going to do everything and use all the tools we have to make sure that people are able to attend this university if they want to be here,” said Cartwright.
Read through the full amendment here:
