Regents foresee tuition hike next year

Budget planning by the state Board of Regents foresees an “inflationary increase” in tuition costs for the three regents universities next fiscal year, according to agenda information released Friday.

Recommendations for tuition hikes won't be made until October, but the regents will discuss the 2010-2011 state appropriations request Thursday in Council Bluffs.

In addition to the tuition increase, fiscal 2011 budget planning assumes the regents will request a 2.7 percent hike in state money for the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, according to the meeting information. State entities must submit appropriation requests for the coming year by Oct. 1.

The state funding request - 2.7 percent - is the midpoint of the Higher Education Price Index, a national figure that projects inflation.

Regent policy requires tuition recommendations be within the index's range, though the board can approve any figure. The range for 2011 is 1.8 percent to 3.5 percent.

This year's base tuition increase was 4.2 percent. But the universities face a funding drop in fiscal 2011, because there will be no money to replace the $80 million in federal stimulus help that went toward covering $86 million in state cuts this year.

Regents President David Miles has said the universities must deal with that drop without large tuition increases.

Also at Thursday's meeting, the regents will discuss a UI request to end the bachelor's degree program in oral health sciences and suspend admissions to the master's and doctoral programs in German for two years.

The oral health sciences program has admitted only 12 students since 1998 and only three have completed it. No students are currently enrolled.

The German programs have had limited applications and enrollment in recent years, officials said. Current students will not be affected by the suspension.