WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Higher ed leaders recommend 5% tuition hike

Higher ed leaders recommend 5% tuition hike

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Higher education leaders in Tennessee recommended one of the smallest tuition increases in years during Governor Phil Bredesen's budget hearings Friday.

Richard Rhoda, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, told the governor the 5% tuition recommendation has been passed along to the administrators of the University of Tennessee system and the Board of Regents schools, which includes schools like Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee State.

He said THEC is also encouraging differential tuition payments, meaning students would pay varying rates depending on which subjects they focus on.

Jan Simek, president of the University of Tennessee system, called the recommendation "a minimal increase," but credited the federal stimulus money for keeping it that way.

"Stimulus funds allow us to accomplish a reduction in force in a gentle, more human way," Simek said during the budget hearings.  "We have been planning for the eventual cutbacks for two years now."

He offered a general overview of what those cutbacks would mean, saying there will be fallout.

Simek cited larger classes and loss of flexibility for students in scheduling of their classes.

"We will do more with less," he said, which seems to be a mantra among higher education leaders.

The planned cuts come as schools cope with a 7.4% increase in enrollment this year.

Simek, however, praised his students and the state lottery scholarship program for keeping good students in state.

"The UT campus in Knoxville has for the sixth year in a row admitted its best class in history," he said.

The tuition cost per year at UT Knoxville has doubled in the last decade.

Ten years ago, an undergrad student from in state paid $2,744 compared to nearly $4,500 five years ago, $6,000 in 2008 and $6,250 this year.