Students downtown aren’t happy with Arizona State University’s recently announced tuition proposal for the 2019-2020 academic year.
“It’s annoying and frustrating to me,” said Matthew Bonn, a sophomore from New Jersey who is majoring in sports business.
Bonn is one of the nearly 19,000 out-of-state undergraduate students who might see a 4.8 percent increase, on average, in tuition and fee costs. Most non-resident students currently pay $28,336 in tuition, depending on the college they attend, according to figures on the university’s website. But next year all out-of-state students will be charged a base tuition of $28,800.
ASU President Michael Crow announced the tuition proposal March 22. In a letter to the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), he said there would be an increase in base tuition for all students and a new tiered fee model. The fee model divides all of ASU’s colleges into four categories with a set fee for each category ranging from $0 to $1,050 that students would pay on top of tuition.
In fall 2018, 92 percent of undergraduate students paid different tuitions due to program and course fees in addition to their base tuition, according to Crow’s letter. In a previous ABOR review, ASU had 146 program fees and more than 5,000 separate course fees.
Crow said in the letter that ASU believes its proposed model can simplify the costs of school. But some students don’t agree with ASU’s new tiered model because they think it’s less transparent than the current system.
“I think the current course fees are more transparent because you know what you’re paying for, where if you have a base fee I don’t think it’s as clear,” said Britney Sorenson, an in-state sophomore majoring in biochemistry.
Bonn, like Sorenson, prefers the current structure because he can see exactly what he is paying for and disagrees with grouping students by college because he doesn’t take many classes with additional fees. But Bonn said he understands why they thought about changing it.
Seven years ago, Crow made a public commitment that in-state students’ tuition would not increase by more than 3 percent per year. Next fall semester, the average in-state student’s total charges from ASU could increase by 2.8 percent, and some students may see increases beyond the 3 percent threshold.
ASU will be extending the less than three percent tuition increase commitment for another 10 years and if currently enrolled in-state students see an increase higher than three percent, ASU will provide financial aid to cover the cost, according to Crow’s letter.
“(The increase) makes college not as accessible for lower-income students,” Sorenson said, “and I think it would just increase the amount of debt that students have.”
Sorenson and Bonn said if tuition keeps increasing as they attend ASU, it will be more difficult for them to afford it.
“I don’t like the increase and I don’t know where the money is going to entirely,” said Bonn. “If it continues to increase, it’s probably going to be harder and harder for me to afford (college).”
ASU has been marked as one of the top public universities for international students for four years in a row, according to an article from ASU Now. International students will see an average overall increase in fees and tuition of 5.3 percent or around $700.
Yingqun “Jessica” Zhu, a sophomore from China who is majoring in journalism said, “It’s a lot, but we can’t do anything about it. It’s the sacrifice we make when we choose to study overseas.”
Online and graduate students will not see a change in their fee structures, but will see an increase in their tuition and some fees as well.
ASU continues to have the lowest tuition out of the three public Arizona universities, according to Crow’s letter. ABOR is expected to finalize tuition and fees for the 2019-2020 academic year for all three universities on April 11.
Contact the reporter at jpbeltra@asu.edu.
