No tuition hikes for Fall 2022 at Texas A&M campuses to counter rising ‘living cost’
As universities across the country announce hefty tuition increases for Fall 2022, citing economic inflation, the Texas A&M University System on Tuesday announced that it will not be raising tuition.
“The Board is very focused on making a college education affordable for all Texans and pledges to make accessibility and fairness our highest priority,” Chairman of the Board Tim Leach said in a news release.
The decision from the Board of Regents applies to the 11 universities in the Texas A&M System, including: College Station; Prairie View; Commerce; Stephenville; Canyon; Kingsville; Corpus Christi; Laredo; Texarkana; San Antonio; and Central Texas.
The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with more than 152,000 students and a budget of $7.2 billion. Texas A&M was recently ranked “Number 1 Public College in Texas” and the state’s “Best Value College,” and College Station was named “Best College Town” in Texas. Texas A&M is expanding into Fort Worth, with a new education and research campus dubbed “Aggieland North” planned in downtown.
The 2022-2023 tuition rate at Texas A&M is $13,012 for Texas residents and $40,896 for out-of-state students. Prior to this, tuition increases were kept at or below the rate of inflation, according to spokesperson Laylan Copelin. Tuition increased by 2% in Fall 2021, she said. In the last decade, in-state undergraduate tuition has increased by over 50%, up by an average annual rate of 4% over the past five years.
One of the universities in the system, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, said in October that there could be an estimated $229 tuition rate increase per semester for full-time undergraduate students this fall. But that plan has been scrapped, Copelin said.
“At a time when students and their families are seeing living costs increase, the Texas A&M System is trying to ease that burden so they can stay in school and get their education,” Copelin said.
The university system says the negative impact of inflation on students is the reason the board decided tuition will remain the same next semester. Prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area jumped 9% over the last year, the largest increase since December 1981, according to the latest Consumer Price Index.
“We recognize there is inflation for running universities, but there is inflation on families and students as well,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “We’ve decided to manage our costs rather than raise tuition.”
Other ways the universities will handle costs include state funding and fiscal management, Sharp said. Several Texas universities have likewise debated whether to increase tuition for students.
The University of North Texas voted in November not to increase tuition rates but to raise the prices of housing and meal plans instead for the 2022-2023 academic semester. The last tuition increase for UNT students occurred in Fall 2019. The TCU Board of Trustees approved a 4.5% increase in tuition rate in the 2022-23 academic year in response to “escalating operational costs and rising rates of inflation.”
Texas A&M has not announced if there will be tuition changes in Spring 2023.
“The Board is studying the issue of affordability and may have other suggestions sometime in the future,” Copelin said.
This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 10:48 AM.
