UVM’s board of trustees voted to raise undergraduate tuition by 2% for in-state students and 4.5% for out-of-state students for the 2025-26 academic year.
The board also approved measures to raise room and board rates by 3.5%.
The University is facing a $10 million budget deficit as a result of rising health insurance costs, said Richard Cate, vice president for finance and administration, according to an Oct. 22 SevenDays article.
Health insurance costs for the University rose 15% last year, with the school spending nearly $100 million on employee health insurance per year, according to the article. That number is believed to rise again by 19% next year, according to the article.
“If not for this extraordinary increase over this year and next year in terms of cost of health insurance, we wouldn’t be having a conversation about cutting the budget,” Cate said at the Oct. 22 meeting. “It is the sole reason we are having this conversation.”
Cate said the University will adopt these changes into the budget, which will be voted upon next May. Despite the tuition increase, the University will still have to cut down expenses, he said.
In-state tuition will rise to $16,606 should the budget be passed in the spring. Currently, it is $16,280, according to the Student Financial Services “Costs of Attending” web page.
Out-of-state tuition will rise to $44,647. It currently stands at $42,724, according to the SFS web page.
“It pains me,” said Patricia Prelock, UVM’s interim president. “When my team first brought me four-and-a-half [percent], I said, ‘It’s a non-starter. I just can’t go there.’ But, at the same time, I have to be a fiscally responsible leader.”
The decision to raise tuition marks the end of a five-year tuition freeze for in-state students, according to a Nov. 30, 2023 Cynic article. Out-of-state tuition was raised for the first time last year after a four-year freeze, the article states.
“It’s not a significant increase in terms of dollars, but in terms of the story, it’s getting harder and harder to sell that we’re continuing to increase [tuition for] out-of-state students and doing nothing with in-state students,” Prelock said.
Jay Jacobs, vice provost for enrollment management, said the University will institute a 33% increase in the adjusted gross income accepted under the UVM Promise, a University program that covers the cost of tuition for low-income families, in an effort to counteract the tuition rise for Vermonters.
The boundary for parental income will rise to $100,000, Jacobs said. It currently stands at $75,000, according to the SFS web page.
Cate said beyond increasing tuition, the University will need to look at cutting expenses in order to offset the budget deficit.
“We want to maintain and enhance the academic program quality,” Cate said. “We want to have virtually no impact on students, to the degree that that is possible.”
