By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
Holdout is Emporia State University, which proposes no increase in tuition
TOPEKA — Administrators of public universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system proposed student tuition increases for undergraduate resident students in the upcoming academic year ranging from 2.5% at Pittsburg State University to 4% at Fort Hays State University.
The outlier was Emporia State University, which responded to steady enrollment declines by requesting no increase in tuition for the second consecutive year.
To varying degrees, the six Board of Regents universities in Kansas grapple with a decline in the college-age population, an ongoing crash in international student enrollment, flat state appropriations, instability in federal research spending as well as inflation in operational costs, pressure to raise employee compensation and demands for substantive direct support of college athletics.
The nine-member Board of Regents has authority over tuition adjustments, but typically recommendations from campus leadership have been adopted.
Here are tuition rate increases proposed by university officials for in-state undergraduate students in the 2025-2026 academic year: University of Kansas, 3%; Kansas State University and Wichita State University, 3.5%; Pittsburg State University, 2.5%; and Fort Hays State University, 4%.
On Wednesday, FHSU President Tisa Mason said during a presentation to the Board of Regents the 4% hike at FHSU would balance financial responsibilities of the university with the capacity of students to afford college.
“We believe that the proposed tuition increase is essential for maintaining our high quality education and our student support services,” she said.
Board member Jon Rolph of Wichita asked whether Mason should consider a more aggressive tuition increase. FHSU historically maintained the state system’s lowest tuition rate due to revenue received from offering instruction to students in China, but the university found it necessary to raise undergraduate tuition by 7% in 2024 and 6% in 2025.
“Our students would loudly say, ‘No,'” Mason told Rolph. “They are feeling these increases right now.”
Ken Hush, president of Emporia State University, defended the decision to request no tuition increase. It meant ESU would go without a tuition rate hike in five of the past seven years. The university projected it would collect 0.4% less revenue from tuition next academic year compared to the current year, a reflection of erosion in enrollment as ESU restructured the university by firing tenured professors and eliminating academic programs.
Since 2016, tuition revenue to ESU has fallen by 26% while the six-university system overall generated an additional $140 million from tuition during that period.
“We are recommending a zero percent increase for the second year in a row,” said Hush, who indicated ESU’s budget factored in a possible 3% enrollment decline in the upcoming year.
Rolph, however, reiterated that he was concerned adopting less-than-necessary tuition increases at this juncture could lead to substantial spikes in the future to fill revenue gaps.
“Do you have that mapped out over two, three, four years where it’s stair-stepped?” Rolph said.
Hush said ESU was proud to offer a high-quality education with a tuition rate that moderated financial barriers faced by students.
“Our goal is to keep it flat from here on out,” Hush said. “We believe its moving in the right direction.”
Rick Muma, president at Wichita State University, said the 3.5% surge in tuition recommended to the Board of Regents reflected an attempt to navigate a difficult financial landscape. He pointed to leveling of investment from the state, uncertainty regarding federal appropriations, employee compensation that was 16% below market rates, the need to allocate $3.5 million to athletics programs and the anticipated reduction in international student enrollment.
“We are seeing the effects of decreased enrollment among international students,” he said. “This just didn’t start this year. It’s significant for us.”
Muma said the tuition increase could net WSU about $3.4 million annually, but the decline in international students could reduce revenue by $5.5 million annually. He said the university planned to implement a 4.8% budget reduction.
Kansas State President Richard Linton said tuition for in-state undergraduates would climb by 3.5%, but a 2.5% tuition increase would be applied to veterinary medicine students and an 8% increase would be sought for students on the aviation campus in Salina.
He expected KSU enrollment to climb 2% in the upcoming year, which would be a second consecutive year of growth following nine years of decline.
“The goal is to be working as hard as we can from a student-affordability standpoint,” Linton said.
KU Chancellor Doug Girod said the plan was to raise undergraduate tuition by 3% and boost student fees by 2%. These adjustments were in reaction to a projected 2.4% inflation rate, challenges with faculty salary compression, the flat state budget, reinvention of federal research funding and arrival of the long-anticipated enrollment decline tied to U.S. population trends. He expected KU also would experience a reduction among international students.
He said financial ramifications of these forces on higher education were difficult to fully predict, especially in terms of what could happen to student enrollment.
“I think the next two years are going to answer that question for all of us,” he said.
Tuition at the six universities in the Board of Regents’ system didn’t rise in 2020 and in 2023. In 2022, only KSU raised tuition. KU didn’t adopt a tuition increase from 2020 through 2023 before embracing increases of 5% in 2024 and 3.5% in the current academic year.