The Arizona Board of Regents will hold its annual public hearings on proposed tuition rates on Nov. 17 at 5 p.m.
At the public interactive hearing, the regents will hear testimony and comments from the public, students and other interested parties regarding tuition and fees for students at The University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Comments at the tuition hearing will be heard on a first-come, first-served basis, rotating through participant sites around the state.
The UA locations for the hearing are as follows:
The Arizona Board of Regents is expected to vote on tuition rates and fees for 2009-2010 at its December meeting at Arizona State University.
Earlier this month, UA President Robert N. Shelton released his recommendations, which reflect the UA's determination to preserve the quality of the UA's educational experience at a time of diminishing state funding.
Shelton recommended 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 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.
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.