Media, Pa. -- Penn State will increase its tuition rate by 5.9 percent for in-state, lower division undergraduate students for the 2005-06 academic year - the lowest tuition increase at the University in six years.
This rate translates into $308 per semester for full-time students at University Park, with slightly lower amounts for students at other Penn State locations.
The benchmark tuition for out-of-state, lower division undergraduate students, whose tuition is expected to cover the entire cost of their education, will increase by 4.5 percent. This rate is based on a formula approved by the board in 2002 that sets the dollar-figure tuition increase for out-of-state students at 1.5 times the increase for in-state students, reflecting more appropriately the increases in the actual costs of instruction.
The University's Board of Trustees approved the new rate schedule at their regular meeting today (July 15) at Penn State Delaware County in Media, Pa.
"We believe we've succeeded in maintaining the high-quality educational experience that we value at Penn State and addressing escalating costs faced in higher education, despite an appropriation increase that was less than a third of our request," said University President Graham B. Spanier. "In particular, we've been successful in keeping the tuition increase to its lowest level in a number of years."
The approved increases for 2005-06 bring the yearly tuition cost for continuing lower division students from Pennsylvania attending the University Park campus to $11,024.
The same category of students attending the Altoona, Berks, Erie and Harrisburg campuses will pay $10,148 in tuition, while those students attending all other Penn State campuses will pay $9,722 in tuition annually.
To meet the demand for information technology services, the mandatory information technology fee will be increased $15 per semester for all full-time students, to $190 per semester. The student activity fee also will be raised -- by $3 per semester at University Park and $2 per semester at other locations. These funds collected from this fee are made available to students through allocations by each campus' student activities fee committee.
A complete listing of Penn State's tuition rate schedules and fees may be accessed at http://www.tuition.psu.edu
Tuition supports more than one-third of Penn State's proposed $3.04 billion budget in 2005-06. Budget increases include funds for escalating health care and other insurance and benefits costs, facilities needs, provisions for modest faculty and staff salary increases and strategic academic program investments.
Last November, the Board of Trustees approved an average room and board cost of $6,530 for 2005-06 -- an increase of 4.82 percent or $300 per year for standard housing and the most common meal plan. This increase covers the normal changes in annual operating expenses as well as the cost of life safety initiatives and the expense of renovations and upgrades to existing facilities.
Penn State's housing and food services already rank among the most affordable in the Big Ten, and are $750 to $1,200 less expensive annually than comparable on-campus residences at other state-related institutions in the state.
Read the full story on Penn State's 2005-06 room and board rates at http://live.psu.edu/story/9095
In sum, the combined increases in tuition, fees and room and board will cost the average in-state, lower division undergraduate student at University Park approximately 5.6 percent more for 2005-06 than was paid in the past year.