University of Kentucky students face unusual tuition increase in proposed budget
The University of Kentucky board will consider a 1 percent tuition increase for in-state students and a 2 percent bump for out-of-state students at this month’s upcoming meeting.
UK joins U of L in seeking a tuition bump this year. Many other Kentucky public universities have elected to freeze tuition because of COVID-19 complications. UK’s proposed tuition increase is the smallest in at least the past decade. From 2010-2012, tuition increased by 6 percent every year.
According to a budget briefing given to a small number of board members last week, the board will also consider a $4.4 billion budget which includes the funding for both the healthcare and academic sides of the university. About 47 percent of the revenue is generated by UK HealthCare. Tuition — the next biggest chunk — comprises 11 percent.
If approved by the Board of Trustees at its June 19 meeting, the budget will go into effect July 1, and the tuition increase will start in the fall. Tuition for in-state, undergraduate students would go from $6,180 this past school year to $6,242. Out-of-state tuition would go from $15,340 to $15,647. Last year, overall enrollment was 30,545 with 22,276 of those undergraduate students.
Provost David Blackwell said during the briefing that the smaller increase in tuition is part of an ongoing effort to help make sure the university is more affordable.
Most students mitigate their tuition costs with various forms of financial aid. Last fall, 89 percent of in-state students received some form of financial aid, according to data made available during the presentation. On average, in-state students with families that made less than $22,000 a year, had their tuition completely covered by financial assistance from the university and from government loans or grants.
The university’s expected $72 million budget shortfall on its academic side is due in part to a possible drop in fall freshmen and transfer student enrollment, which is likely to cause the university to lose $27 million in expected revenue, said Eric Monday, the executive vice president for finance and administration.
The vast majority of that budget shortfall is being bridged by the 10-percent force or staff reductions which has led to department cost-cutting measures and furloughs across the university. Those reductions have freed up about $64 million in additional funds, Monday said. Cuts in contributions to retirement accounts for university employees generated an additional $9 million.
Before the pandemic, the university aimed to enroll 5,700 freshmen and 1,100 new transfer students this fall. According to Blackwell, enrollment prediction models and the best available data suggest that the freshmen class will be closer to 4,500 and incoming transfer students will be closer to 500. Blackwell was questioned on the soundness of those numbers by some of the trustees.
“This entire budget is really predicated by how many folks we have on campus and I’m just reading so much nationally with other institutions,” said Bryan Sunderland, a trustee and Gov. Matt Bevin’s former deputy chief of staff for policy and legislation. “Do we have a confidence level that our numbers are pretty close? Or is this just a moving target until the fall?”
Blackwell said their enrollment projections are based on predictive modeling, which has become more uncertain as the pandemic has forced higher education institutions across the country to re-evaluate the college experience for this coming fall.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty about the predictive modeling,” Blackwell said. “I’m being very candid about that.”
Students and parents have been slow to make up their minds on college decisions, Blackwell said.
In response, the university pushed back the enrollment confirmation deadline to June 1. Blackwell also added that the university announcing its final campus reopening plans — expected at some point this week — will be very important because “that will resolve that uncertainty” for incoming students.
Blackwell said the initial numbers on fall freshmen enrollment is encouraging. The university has offered pre-enrollment programs this summer to help keep incoming freshmen engaged, and more than 1,000 students have participated, Blackwell said.
Retention rates are expected to be flat, Monday said. That prediction is of course also based on “best available data,” he said.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 7:48 AM.