MSU board to vote on 5.5% tuition increase

The MSU Board of Governors will meet at 9 a.m. Friday at the school’s West Plains campus. Among the meeting agenda items is a proposal for a 5.5 percent increase to student fees and tuition.

That figure is less than the 6.5 percent increase the board approved in March 2005 and is lower than the increase officials first predicted, due to a 2 percent raise in state funding for higher education this year.

If the proposal is approved, undergraduate courses for the 2006-07 school year would cost $173 per credit hour for Missouri residents and $337 for non-Missouri residents. Current undergraduate hours are $164 for Missouri residents and $328 for nonresidents.

For graduate courses, fees would increase from $189 per credit hour for residents and $378 for nonresidents to $199 and $388, respectively.

Officials say the 5.5 percent increase is expected to keep MSU’s per-credit-hour costs relative to those of other Missouri state institutions. According to a 2004 College Board pricing trends study, MSU’s costs and fees average about 10 percent less than Missouri’s other four-year public schools.

Also included in the proposal is an increase in service fees for full-time students. The current fee of $267 would be raised to $274.

New to this year’s fees proposal is the Choice and Predictability in Tuition program, which would allow undergraduate students to lock in tuition at $176 for residents and $343 for nonresidents for two years.