Four Big Pa. Universities Could Freeze Tuition
Good news for parents of Pennsylvania families with college-bound students: Tuition at four of the state’s biggest public universities might soon be frozen — if state legislators pass Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed funding bump for higher education.
Penn State President Eric Barron pledged during a Senate budget hearing Tuesday to recommend a freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition at all campuses if the state’s 2015-16 enacted budget fully funds Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed increases for Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities.
“If the governor’s requested numbers were to become reality, I would recommend to the board that all campuses have no increases for in-state students,” Barron said.
Wolf’s budget contai,mns the first major state funding increases for Pennsylvania’s four state-related schools — Penn State, Temple, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University in Chester County — since 2008.
KYW:
Temple President Neil Theobald, who says his school gets about 11% of its funding from the state, says keeping increases at the rate of inflation or lower shouldn’t be a problem.
“Clearly, it’s a partnership – the state and the university – in terms of tuition,” he said. “If there is a significant increase in state funding, we will keep tuition at a very low rate, certainly inflation won’t be an issue.”
But other public universities won’t make that committment, WITF says:
The 14 state-owned universities are also slated to get more state aid, with a $45 million boost, or 11 percent over their current budget. The system was asked to freeze tuition in return. But state system Chancellor Frank Brogan said last week that such a commitment is “impossible.”
