UConn will hold its tuition rate flat for the 2025-26 fiscal year while it reviews other ways to raise revenue, increase operating efficiencies, and protect the academic enterprise while continuing to ensure access for talented students.<\/p>\n
The UConn Board of Trustees on Wednesday adjusted several fees<\/a> to meet the increasing costs of providing student housing, meal plans, and services such as student activities, health programs, classroom tech, and transit services.<\/p>\n However, trustees left UConn\u2019s tuition rate unchanged for the 2025-26 academic year, which starts July 1, 2025. It will be the first academic year without a tuition increase at UConn since 2000.<\/p>\n Trustees and administrators say the decision to keep tuition flat recognizes that families and students face fiscal constraints and demonstrates that the University is committed to offering a world-class education at an affordable price.<\/p>\n UConn also is keeping its fee increases lower than the amounts that would be needed to fully meet rising costs and is subsidizing part of those costs with other funds to reduce the impact on students and their families.<\/p>\n \u201cOur focus is to ensure that UConn remains an economic value as we continue to address the budget deficits that we are projecting into future years,\u201d Jeffrey Geoghegan, UConn\u2019s chief financial officer and executive vice president for finance, told participants at a recent Town Hall meeting on the fee proposals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to look at our overall enrollment growth, philanthropy, and our external grants and partnerships while we also continue to work on reducing costs around the University,\u201d he said. \u201cOur focus will be to maintain our high quality of education and student support services.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn had previously adjusted housing and dining fees for the current 2024-25 academic year to meet increased costs of commodities and rental market inflation but kept all other fees unchanged<\/a> at last year\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n UConn\u2019s guiding principles when setting fees are to protect affordability by increasing them only when absolutely necessary to cover increased costs, to promote simplicity and transparency so the fees can be easily understood, and to use the revenue to help ensure financial stability and quality of the programming it funds.<\/p>\n For Storrs-based undergraduate students who do not live on campus, the mandatory fees will increase about $292 in the next academic year.<\/p>\n If the University had passed along all of the inflationary increases via the fees, the increase to those students would have been $520.<\/p>\n The fee increase for regional campus commuter students will be about $112 in the coming academic year. Fee rates are lower at the regional campuses because those students do not have regular access to some of the Storrs-based services.<\/p>\n Separately, the cost of Storrs-based student housing for the most common residential and dining plans will increase $396 in the 2025-26 academic year to meet increased inflationary and commodities costs.<\/p>\n The trustees\u2019 Financial Affairs Committee had endorsed the fee proposal Tuesday, and it was presented at town halls<\/a> in person<\/a> and online<\/a> on Nov. 13 with opportunities for participants to ask administrators about specific elements.<\/p>\n Even when accounting for the fee adjustments approved Wednesday, reviews consistently show that UConn offers academic excellence at a significant value for Connecticut residents compared with the amounts they would pay if they attended many competing institutions.<\/p>\n Among a group of 13 schools against which UConn directly competes for applicants who receive enrollment offers, 10 have higher room and board rates, including several flagship institutions.<\/p>\n A large number of UConn students\u2019 costs are also reduced by financial aid, with almost three-quarters of UConn\u2019s undergraduates receiving some form of gift aid they do not have to repay.<\/p>\n