The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will meet at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday and Friday, June 7 and 8. The Regents are scheduled to discuss and approve UW System’s 2012-13 operating budget and tuition increase request.
UW System is asking for a 5.5 percent tuition increase for the sixth straight year. Wisconsin Act 32, the 2011-13 biennial budget, capped tuition increases at 5.5 percent for each year in the biennium put a moratorium on differential tuition increases. The budget also cut funding for UW System by $250 million over the biennium, and the Department of Administration announced a $65.7 million lapse cut last October, resulting in a net cut of more than $315 million to UW System over two years.
Resident undergraduate tuition at UW-Madison will increase by $681 to $9,273 per year. Mandatory fees raise the total cost to $10,379. Resident graduate and non-resident undergraduate tuition will also increase by $681, while non-resident graduate tuition remains frozen for the fifth consecutive year. UW System notes that a tuition freeze reduces the cost of graduate tuition remission and is essential to the research mission at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee:
“Providing non-resident tuition remissions is a must in order to compete for the best and brightest graduate students. These remissions place a significant financial burden on academic departments.”
The Regents will also discuss its 2013-15 biennial budget request, which is typically presented to the Department of Administration in August.