RUSSELLVILLE -- The cost of going to school at Arkansas Tech University is going up.
Tuition and mandatory fees for an undergraduate student enrolled in 30 credit hours during the 2014-15 academic year will be $7,248 -- a 4.77 percent increase from the $6,918 rate in tuition and mandatory fees such a student was charged for during the 2013-14 academic year.
Other schools in Arkansas are setting rates charged to students for the 2014-15 academic year.
On Friday, the Arkansas State University board of trustees increased new rates. The new rate for an in-state ASU undergraduate taking 30 credits on the Jonesboro campus during the 2014-15 academic year will be $7,720, a 2.8 percent increase. In the 2013-14 academic year, the average full-time undergraduate was charged $7,510.
ASU is the state's second-largest four-year university, which had 13,552 students in the past academic year.
Proposed rates for 2014-15 at other four-year public universities -- the University of Arkansas System campuses in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Monticello and Pine Bluff; Henderson State University in Arkadelphia; Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia; and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway have not been released.
The trustees for those systems and universities have scheduled meetings this month to set rates and budgets as administrators prepare for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.
At Arkansas Tech, the state's fourth-largest public university with about 11,370 students, the board of trustees approved an operating budget of $135.3 million for fiscal 2014-15 during a meeting at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center on Thursday.
The 2014-15 budget for Arkansas Tech features a 1.5 percent cost-of-living pay increase for faculty and staff.
The budget also includes an increase at the Russellville campus in undergraduate tuition from $199 per credit hour to $209 per credit hour, and an increase in the health and wellness fee from $2 per student semester credit hour to $3 per student semester credit hour.
Students attending the two-year Arkansas Tech-Ozark Campus also face higher rates. They will pay $103 per semester credit hour, up from $94 per credit hour. The technology fee will increase from $11 to $13 per credit hour, and the infrastructure fee will go from $5 to $10 per credit hour.
The trustees also approved a 2.5 percent rise in the cost of meal plans at the Ozark campus.
State Desk on 05/17/2014