The University of Massachusetts has moved to increase tuition and charges for accommodation and food for the next academic year. However, some trustees indicated on Wednesday that they feel the proposed increases are not high enough, with one trustee stating that maintaining the current situation would lead to running the institution into the ground.
The UMass Board of Trustees Committee on Administration and Finance unanimously decided on Wednesday morning to raise tuition for in-state undergraduates by 2.5% for the 2024-2025 academic year to $17,006, adding $415 to the bill of a student at the flagship Amherst campus, and slightly less at the Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell campuses.
The full board is set to vote to confirm the tuition and fee increases next Wednesday.
Last year, the board also approved a 2.5% increase for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Out-of-state undergraduates at the Amherst campus are facing a 3% increase in tuition, a $1,156 adjustment to $39,693. The system’s three other undergraduate campuses will implement a 2.5% increase for out-of-state students.
Graduate students at Amherst, Boston and Lowell campuses will see a 2.5% rise in their tuition, while the committee voted to raise Dartmouth’s tuition for graduate students only 1%.
Costs for accommodation and food are also going up. Students at the Amherst campus will see a 4.5% increase, to $16,128, and the Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell campuses will have room and board fees increase by 2.3, 3.6 and 3.7% respectively.
UMass projects that the net revenue from the tuition and fee adjustments will be $10 million, “only partially offsetting projected expense increases related to wage, health insurance, financial aid, and student support cost increases.”
UMass reports that its efforts to centralize procurement and other administrative functions have saved $120 million over the past few years, “contributing to its ability to hold tuition adjustments below inflation.”
However, some trustees expressed on Wednesday that continuing to limit tuition increases below the rate of inflation is not sustainable and they argued for increases in the 3.5 to 4% range instead.
Trustee Bob Epstein remarked, “I’m going to discuss a $10 million increase in revenue given the following circumstances: There is no more funding coming from the State House for the next two years due to the immigration issue, and the cost of private education is $90,000. We need to catch up. If we continue to compare the CPI against our rising costs, we will eventually face even tougher financial challenges ahead.”
Epstein expects that, no matter the amount the board raises tuition by, “there’ll be an article in the Globe, an article maybe in the Herald, about how bad we are,” and that “we might as well get it over with, you might as well get a number that we need.”
Trustee Charles Wu agreed, stating that UMass is “behind the eight ball and we’re on the treadmill,” and should be prepared for either “student protests who are unhappy with the tuition increase, or faculty or program cuts that we’re going to have to do.
“I believe that the board should consider this. While I agree that keeping the cost very low is a great goal, I think a 3% or more increase is not unreasonable. I haven’t done the calculations the way Bob did, but just the numbers don’t make sense,” Wu said. “If we have 1.5% increases against 4.5% inflation, we’re just going to be ruining the institution.”
UMass President Marty Meehan, who has been warning of upcoming financial challenges for the university system for at least a year, said that the topic of how tuition rates influence the system’s overall financial situation needs further discussion.
“Clearly, this proposal is what the chancellors and I believed was the right number. But I’m certainly not going to disagree with the perspectives of the two trustees. And it is very reasonable — as long as we provide financial aid, I don’t think that our sticker cost is too high at all. In fact, I worry sometimes that students don’t come to UMass because the sticker price is so low, they worry that maybe it’s not as good as someplace else,” Meehan said.
Trustee Steve Tolman, the former head of the state AFL-CIO, said he thought raising tuition any higher than 2.5 percent would be “a bad look,” especially for the people who are already struggling to afford college costs.
“That’s what financial aid is for,” Wu responded. “For those people who can’t afford it, we can give them more financial aid so they’re indifferent. But for the people who can afford it, and certainly foreign students coming over, we can increase that and they would probably be indifferent.”
Epstein agreed to drop his motion to have the committee consider a greater tuition increase after Chairman Michael O’Brien said he would make it a priority to continue the conversation through the summer and fall as the university system plans for next year’s tuition rates.
“When you think about it intellectually and fiduciarily, there’s no question that we are between a rock and a hard place. And there’s no way that this is sustainable, what we’re doing,” O’Brien said.
Through increases in financial aid and freezing tuition during the COVID-19 pandemic, university officials say they have been able to hold student debt flat in real dollars. Average post-graduation debt was $31,404 in fiscal 2019, compared to $31,173 in fiscal 2024, according to UMass. If average debt had grown at the rate of inflation, it would be $39,549.
University-generated financial aid increased by $14 million over fiscal 2023 to $409 million. This represents an 82 percent increase over the last decade, while tuition and fees increased by 32 percent.
A report from the higher education nonprofit The Hildreth Institute last year found that MASSGrant, the state’s primary tool for providing need-based financial aid, has shrunk in its impact over the past few decades in the face of tuition increases and higher demand. In 1998, the aid covered about 80 percent of tuition and fees at public universities. As of last year, it covered only 8 percent of tuition and fees for UMass students and 11 percent for state university students, the report said.
Lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey have agreed to expand MASSGrant Plus this academic year to help students with the greatest needs, following the release of that report.
The program's total impact has increased to $84 million, with a $62 million boost, which is a significant rise from its initial $7.5 million funding under former Gov. Charlie Baker. This funding is covered by the income surtax on the state’s highest earners, which was approved in 2022.
Last fall, the governor stated that one-third of all UMass students would be eligible for free tuition under the expanded program.
