AMERICUS -- Georgia college students and their families will pay more tuition next fall, and those attending Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia and Georgia State University face even heftier increases.
The State Board of Regents on Tuesday raised tuition by 2.5 percent for students attending 32 of the 35 colleges in the University System of Georgia. While that marks the smallest increase in nearly a decade, students attending the three research institutions will open drastically different tuition bills because of a change in policy separating those schools from the others.
• Georgia Tech will see the largest increase at 6 percent. Students will pay $3,859 per semester, a $218 bump.
• At UGA, a 5 percent increase awaits students, hiking their tuition by $182 to $3,823 per semester.
• Georgia State students will pay 3.5 percent more, with semester charges growing by $127 to $3,768.
The steeper increases acknowledged the quality and market demand at the three schools, Chancellor Hank Huckaby said. Georgia Tech and UGA routinely rank among the top 20 public colleges in the country. It also puts them more on par with the in-state tuition charged at peer institutions, such as Purdue University for Georgia Tech and Ohio State for UGA, said John Brown, vice chancellor for fiscal affairs.
The three schools historically charged students the same tuition rates and had equal increases.
"I think it's appropriate that we get away from this ‘one size fits all' at our research universities," Huckaby said, adding the system may not do this every year.
"We looked at the quality of what they’re getting for the price they’re paying and compare that to the other schools," Huckaby said after the vote. "Quite frankly, our tuition at all of our schools is still a bargain."
The new rates mean tuition at UGA and Tech has increased by about 70 percent since fall 2007.
UGA sophomore Haleigh Hoffman is putting herself though college and already works part time. She planned to work this summer but was unsure whether the extra hours will be enough.
"How am I going to pay for that?" Hoffman said. "You always expect tuition hikes, but 5 percent is a big hit. And it's just going to keep increasing."
Hoffman is among the nearly 30 percent of the system’s students receiving the HOPE scholarship, and most will see their out-of-pocket costs increase. HOPE students at UGA currently pay $459.50 -- the difference between the scholarship and semester tuition. Next fall, HOPE students will have to come up with $641.50 per semester. The scholarship used to cover all tuition, but lawmakers overhauled the program last year to increase its financial stability and now the award amount is tied to lottery revenue.
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed a commission to study how the state funds colleges, and the group will look at providing incentives for students' success. He referred to the 2.5 percent increase at most campuses as "good news" and expected the change to have a minimal impact on the HOPE scholarship. The state's highest achievers still receive a full-tuition scholarship, so the expense of the award is tied to the regents' actions.
"Of course, every increase of that nature does have some negative effect on [HOPE]," Deal said. "It’s not as big an increase as previous years, and I’m glad of that."
Huckaby said the system considered affordability, noting that students at 32 colleges will pay between $31 and $91 more per semester. The smaller increases will help a statewide initiative to improve attendance and graduation rates, he said. Cost is considered one the main reasons students don’t attend college or fail to graduate.
The system was able to rein in tuition because the Legislature increased the University System's budget by $89.6 million, nearly 5.1 percent. That included money to help with enrollment growth across the system. The system is teaching about 318,000 students this fall, an increase of nearly 58,000 students over five years.
But Huckaby said colleges need extra tuition money because the additional state funding fails to restore the budget cuts forced by the recession.
That's part of the reason why the regents did not eliminate the "special institutional fee" that ranges from $160 to $544 per semester, depending on the college. The fee was set to expire at the end of June, but Brown said the system can't afford to lose the nearly $210 million it brings in. The regents agreed to re-evaluate the charges annually.
The combination of higher tuition and the continuation of the fee just adds to financial burdens, said Elle Creel, the president of Georgia Tech's undergraduate student government association.
"Are they thinking about students and wondering if we'll be able to pay all this?" Creel asked. "If it's going to be increased, we want to know how the money will be used. How will it improve our education and our experience?"
Colleges are expected to use the extra tuition revenue to expand student support in areas such as tutors, advisers and counselors, Huckaby said. Some will use it to address staffing and reduce dependency on part-time professors. Georgia Tech is expected to lower student-faculty teaching ratios, he said.
Huckaby said the system is "very sensitive" to financial hardships. Should tuition increase over the next four of five years, Huckaby hoped it would be "at a very modest level."
"Everybody is never happy with a tuition increase. We understand that," Huckaby said. "But that's not the real world we live in, in terms of the quality of what we're trying to provide."
Staff writer Aaron Gould Sheinin contributed to this article.
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