UNT tuition increased for 2016-17, students weigh in
Tuition for traditional undergraduate students is increasing for the 2016-17 school year as part of a plan approved by the university’s Board of Regents in 2014.
This, combined with an increased headcount and an increase in credit hours, totals to an additional $31.1 million in tuition and fee revenue for the university, according to information provided to the board.
Undergraduate students not on the Eagle Express tuition plan will pay about $10,878 in tuition and fees this year — a 3.9 percent increase from last year. The traditional tuition plan approved in 2014 included a 3.9 percent tuition increase every year until the 2017-18 school year. Eagle Express students continue to pay a flat rate of about $10,673.
All traditional students will be paying more per class hours. Any applicable student taking seven or more credit hours this semester will be paying at least $200 more compared to the 2015-16 school year, and students taking 12 or more hours will be paying over $400 more.
“I was barely able to cover my tuition last year and now my student debt is going to increase,” kinesiology sophomore Isaiah Gutierrez said. “This isn’t shocking to me that UNT raised tuition, but it does hurt me financially which really sucks.”
Gutierrez, who is taking two less hours per semester than last academic year, will still have to pay almost 200 dollars more. Students like biochemistry sophomore Rusty Hartman are also upset with the increase.
“I’m not too happy,” Hartman said. “I could have used that money on books. I wish they would have advertised this more. I still would go to this school either way, but it would have been nice to know.”
Other students this week said they wished they could have been a part of the budgeting process, or at least had a voice in it.
“I just feel really ignorant that I didn’t know that myself,” Student Kyle Kelsey said. “I know that it’s the responsibility of the university to inform us about the increase in tuition and updating things around the campus, but I also blame myself for not actively seeking out information about the university.”
Undergrad students taking 12 hours this semester will be paying upwards of $10,153 this year, more than tuition for half of University of Texas at Austin’s 12 colleges, which range from $9,626 to $11,060 for a 12 or more hour course load.
“It’s pretty upsetting considering it’s required for a scholarship that I got to take 15 hours,” UNT student Josh Kennedy said. “So they give me a thousand dollars to go to school here and then what? They take 400 of it away just because I have to take 15 hours? It doesn’t even make sense.”
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