Both in-state and out-of-state students attending the University of Rhode Island will see a 3.5% tuition increase next academic year under a proposal approved at a Feb. 13 meeting of the school’s board of trustees.
Administrators approved a 2.9% increase to the mandatory fees paid by undergraduate students – a $68 bump that will bring the annual total to $2,396 per student. Additionally, housing and dining charges increase 2.6%.
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The combined tuition and mandatory fees comprise what’s known as the total cost of attendance. For in-state students, the estimated cost will go from $32,546 this academic year to $33,540, according to a presentation given to the trustees. (A financial aid page on URI’s website gives a slightly higher cost of attendance as it uses a higher, average estimate for housing and food costs.)
“This is really kind of the sticker price for the university,” Abby Benson, the school’s vice president for administration and finance, told trustees during her presentation on the proposed tuition changes. “We again see that the 3.5% is the most optimal recommendation to optimize our resources while limiting enrollment decline.”
Estimates in Benson’s presentation show a total cost of attendance increase of $994 for in-state students and $1,738 for out-of-state students.
This year’s tuition and fee increases are basically identical to last year’s, when the trustees approved another 3.5% tuition increase, along with smaller mandatory fee and housing and dining price changes to accommodate inflationary pressure. In 2024, the board OK’d tuition hikes of 3.6% for in-state students and 3.9% for out-of-state students, plus a 0.9% increase in mandatory fees.
Each February, the board of trustees receives a presentation on the administration’s suggested increases to costs. Before going to the full board, the board’s finance and facilities subcommittee reviews and discusses the proposals first; this year the subcommittee met on Feb. 2. At each meeting, Benson was on hand to explain the tuition changes, and remind trustees that URI submits its budget request to the governor’s office in September for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on July 1 in Rhode Island.
“We come back in February to the board for approval, when we have a little bit more information about our enrollment for the current year and also the landscape of what our peers are doing,” Benson said on Friday.
Four separate fees will increase under the plan approved last week:
- Ryan Center building fee: A $30 increase, from $392 to $422, for the 8,000 seat arena which serves as home court for Rams basketball. This is the largest increase percentage-wise, at 7.7%. Benson told the finance subcommittee on Feb. 2 that the building, which was built in 2002, needs upgrades like a new wifi system, a new roof and fire door and elevator replacements. Benson said she anticipates there will be another increase in this fee next year.
- Fitness and wellness center fee: This will rise from $116 to $124, or 6.9%. “That is really to offset the intense usage of that facility and necessary equipment upgrades, because we really work through our equipment rapidly and that facility is so highly used,” Benson said.
- Memorial Student Union fee: This will increase $8 as well, from $474 to $482. Benson said this is the second consecutive year that the school is asking for an increase to student union fees as the space is scheduled for renovations and expansion, with “much-needed capital repairs” necessary in the short-term to hold over and prepare the space before this extensive makeover begins.
- Technology fee: This will go up $22, from $360 to $382. The surcharge has gone untouched for “quite a while,” Benson told trustees, and added that “modernization of our IT systems is a constant challenge and requires significant financial investment.” The additional revenue generated by the fee hike will go toward academic journal digital subscriptions purchased by the library, classroom technology, and core IT department functions, Benson said. She had previously told the finance subcommittee that about half of the technology fee goes toward journal subscriptions, which are “increasing significantly this year.”
Data for fiscal year 2025 from the library’s acquisition team shows that the university spent an approximate $3.36 million on journal subscriptions, mostly online versions. This expenditure made up about 57% of the library’s materials budget, easily outpacing what was spent on any other collections-related purchase. Print journals comprised a mere $3,811, or less than 1%, of the materials budget.
The finance office’s cost modelling shows a 1.5% increase, or $140 in all, for housing under a “Group B / Tier 1 Double” plan. Dining costs on an unlimited standard plan will rise 4.5%, from $5,600 to $5,850. Taken together, these two increases make for a 2.6% increase overall. Benson said the board does not need to approve these changes as these costs are supposed to be self-supporting, but the numbers are still presented to trustees.
Also bundled into this year’s increases are differential charges based on select academic programs. Benson said that some students in programs like nursing or pharmacy already “pay above and beyond tuition for that program.”
“So in some cases, we’re replacing an existing program fee and calling it a differential charge,” she said. “And in some cases, we’re actually introducing new differential charges that we believe our students in the market can bear.”
The entirely new charges are a $1,500 fee for engineering graduate students and graduate/part-time MBA students, as well as a new $3,000 fee for full-time MBA students.
A projected $1.87 million in revenue would be generated from these differential charges, according to Benson’s presentation.
Alexander Castro is a staff writer for the Rhode Island Current.
