Shelton Releases Tuition, Fee and Financial Aid Set-aside Recommendations

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Shelton Releases Tuition, Fee and Financial Aid Set-aside Recommendations

The recommended increases reflect the UA's determination to preserve the quality of the UA's educational experience at a time of diminishing state funding.

By Paul G. Allvin, University Communications
November 6, 2008

University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton today released his recommendations to the Arizona Board of Regents for 2009-2010 tuition rates for UA students. The recommended increases reflect the UA's determination to preserve the quality of the UA's educational experience at a time of diminishing state funding.

Shelton sent a memo to the Arizona Board of Regents that included the following tuition and fee adjustments:

Tuition

Shelton is recommending that base undergraduate tuition be increased for Arizona residents by $659, to $5,933 for undergraduates, and to $6,723 for graduate students. For all non-resident students, tuition would rise by $2,575, to $20,983 for non-resident undergraduates and to $21,276 for non-resident graduate students.

Base tuition for UA South's in-state students would rise by $450 for undergraduates, to $5,053. UA South's in-state graduate students and all non-resident students would pay the same base tuition as their main campus peers.

Under Shelton's plan, tuition for UA medical students would increase by $636 to $$1,660, depending on the year they will graduate.

Student service fees

Existing student fees, which range from $201 to $257, would rise to cover increases in financial aid commitments and critical student services, by $45 to $67, depending on student classifications.

Graduate program, course and miscellaneous fees

Shelton's recommendations include professional graduate program fees, special class fees and increased enrollment deposits.

"The University is highly sensitive to the financial constraints that students and their families experience during the present time," Shelton told regents in his written recommendations. "We look around us and see financial uncertainty locally and globally. We feel the impact institutionally, and our families and friends are impacted individually." Counterbalancing that economic uncertainty, Shelton said, is the certainty that students have expressed that they do not want the quality of their UA experience to diminish.

"Our students come to The University of Arizona for an education that will prepare them to be successful throughout their lifetime. At every student forum I have attended this semester, the students have voiced their unequivocal support for maintaining a high-quality education," Shelton said. "They have told me their UA education is one worth fighting for and investing in. Given the choice between permanent cuts in academics or an increase in tuition that students have financial options to offset, we choose the latter."

Those options include standard federal financial aid, the Arizona Financial Aid Trust and financial aid generated by setting aside 15 percent of tuition revenues.

It also includes Arizona Assurance, the new student financial and academic aid program that offers four years of debt-free education to any Arizona resident who meets the UA's admissions requirements and comes from a home with an adjusted gross income of $42,400 or less.

With unparalleled financial value coupled with its unique inclusion of student success program components like enhanced academic advising and faculty mentoring, Arizona Assurance offers Arizonans, by far, the most inclusive and sweeping commitment cover all costs of enrollment and guarantee academic aid to educate and graduate more Arizona residents.