Students could see tuition hikes from Indiana's public colleges and universities

Times of Northwest Indiana and wire reports

INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana Commission for Higher Education is recommending a tuition and fee rate increases of no higher than 5 percent to 6 percent for the state's seven public college and university systems.

The commission's executive committee suggests that none of the increases for the next two years exceeds 5 percent for Indiana and Purdue universities and University of Southern Indiana, 4 percent for Ball State and Ivy Tech, and 3.5 percent for Indiana State and Vincennes University.

Purdue University officials will conduct a public hearing July 13 on the proposed tuition and student fees for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.

The proposal calls for a $388 increase for resident students and a $1,394 increase for nonresident students. That translates into a 5 percent resident tuition increase and a 6 percent nonresident tuition increase for continuing students each of the next two academic years at the West Lafayette campus.

Fees for Indiana students at other Purdue campuses are assessed on a per-credit-hour basis. Rates for resident and nonresident students:

-- Purdue University Calumet - $210 (resident) and $471 (nonresident)

-- Purdue North Central - $213 (resident) and $502 (nonresident)

-- Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne - $231 (resident) and $549 (nonresident)

Those rates represent a 5 percent increase for resident students and a 6 percent increase for nonresident students.

The recommendations are nonbinding, so the colleges and universities can go beyond the recommendations. But they might have to justify rates that are higher to the State Budget Committee.

IU President Michael McRobbie intends to propose tuition rate increases to the board of trustees by the middle of the month. He said operating appropriations for IU's eight campuses have been cut by 4.5 percent in the first year of the budget and 1.5 percent in the second year. Those funds are being replaced with a one-time allocation of stimulus dollars.

Tuition rates normally would have been set by now, but were delayed because it took until Tuesday for legislators to approve a new state budget.