For the first time in seven years, universities in Pennsylvania’s state system will raise tuition for in-state students as the amount of state funding they will receive for 2025-26 remains uncertain.
In-state students in the 10 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education will pay $7,994 annually in tuition, a $278 increase, or 3.6%. Individual universities decide on graduate and out-of-state undergraduate tuition rates, as well as room, board, and mandatory fees.
The system has requested a 6.5%, or $40.3 million, increase in its state funding, which would raise the total to $661.1 million. The state budget approved by the House on Monday included that funding, but it’s unclear whether that increase will remain in the final budget deal.
If the full funding request comes through, the board will roll back that increase, officials said. Exactly how that would happen will be decided later.
“This motion represents our very, very best effort to keep foremost in mind our students’ accessibility and affordability for the high quality education that our [PASSHE] universities provide, while at the same time ensuring that we can actually operate the system and our universities can operate,” board Chair Cynthia Shapira said.
She said the vote is not political.
“We are not trying to hang anything on anybody,” she said. “We are simply doing this because it is our best good faith effort to accomplish these dual goals.”
All board members present approved the measure except for the representative for state Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver, a Republican.
Abigail Hancox, a board member and graduate student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, spoke in support of the move.
“I wish it was different, but I will be voting yes,” she said. “This is the best decision possible in order for us, as PASSHE students, to continue receiving the educational experience we do.”
Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino said universities needed to know by next week what tuition rates would be so bills can be sent to students.
If the full funding increase comes through, he said, the system could cancel the tuition increase for the spring semester and offer a rebate for fall, but the board hasn’t decided that yet.
It would have taken a nearly 6% tuition increase to make up the $40 million that the system hopes to get from the Legislature, but an increase of that magnitude was not feasible, he said.
In-state students, who make up nearly 90% of the 82,509 students in the system, have paid $7,716 in tuition since 2018-19. The system froze tuition for the first time in more than two decades in 2019-20 under former Chancellor Daniel Greenstein as enrollment declined and the system sought to address concerns about affordability and improve its relationship with state legislators to secure more funding.
Universities in the state system include: West Chester, Cheyney, Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Millersville, Indiana, Commonwealth, Slippery Rock, and PennWest Universities.
More program sharing across campuses
Fiorentino also shared his priorities for the system, including more program sharing across the system’s campuses, which have lost more than 30% of their enrollment since 2010. The system this year will develop pilot programs for universities to share foreign language and history classes as well as classes for teachers of the deaf, a system spokesperson said.
Through online learning, students from any of the universities would be able to take those courses no matter where they are based, Fiorentino said in an interview before the meeting.
He hopes to grow program sharing over time, given the low enrollment in many low enrollment programs across the system. He said 95% of PASSHE students are enrolled in 50% of its programs.
“We simply don’t have enough students enrolled across the system to be able to offer these programs at every campus,” he said.
But through course sharing with other campuses, it may be possible to fill those classes, he said.
“We need to be thoughtful about how we can find ways to do this to reduce the cost,” he said.
Some programs, however, may not have enough students across the system to sustain, and may need to be phased out, he said.
To help with enrollment decline, Fiorentino said the system also is considering hiring a company to assist in bringing students who have some college credits but no degree back to school.
It’s too early to project fall enrollment, Fiorentino said.
Also at the meeting, the board named Jeffery L. Osgood, West Chester’s executive vice president and provost, as interim president of Commonwealth University. He will replace Bashar Hanna, who announced in April that he would step down in July.
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.
