A first peek at proposed tuition increases for Iowa’s public universities — made public Monday — indicates resident undergraduate students at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University could pay 3 percent more next fall, while University of Northern Iowa in-state undergrads could pay 2 percent more.

Those increases — which the Board of Regents will consider for the first time this Friday and weigh for final approval in June — are smaller than a 3.5 percent bump all three campuses imposed on resident undergraduates for this academic year.

The lower proposed tuition increases tie directly to a larger proposed state appropriation, according to board documents — reminding the public of its fall request for $14.8 million more in general university appropriations for the 2025 budget year.

The Iowa Legislature recently passed a budget bill appropriating $12.3 million of that request for the next budget year, amounting to a 2.5 percent increase over this year.

Lawmakers last session rebuffed the regents’ request for $32 million more in general education appropriations, keeping allocations flat — although designating an additional $7.1 million for special uses, like the UI College of Nursing, ISU STEM workforce initiatives and UNI’s teacher-student recruitment efforts.

So long as Gov. Kim Reynolds signs the budget bill for fiscal 2025, Iowa’s public universities would hold increases for resident undergraduate students to $270 at Iowa State and UI and $168 at UNI for the academic year.

In proposing the increases, the board office said it considered “state support, operating costs that may be absorbed through efficiencies and reallocations, and the expected inflationary impact to higher education budgets.”

At the non-resident undergraduate level, a proposed UI increase of 1.3 percent is below the in-state undergrad increase. Meanwhile, Iowa State is proposing a higher increase for its non-resident undergrads at 4.5 percent, and UNI wants to keep its proposed increases at 2 percent for both in-state and out-of-state undergrads — although, because nonresidents pay more, that amounts to a larger dollar-figure increase of $400 a year.

Graduate rates

All UNI graduate students are facing a matching 2-percent bump next fall, while ISU is proposing a 4.5 percent hike for all its grad students — amounting to $469 more for in-state students and $1,254 for non-resident students.

The University of Iowa is proposing a $394 base rate increase for all its graduate students — amounting to a 3.5 percent increase for in-state students and 1.3 percent bump for out-of-state students.

The proposed tuition increases across the three universities are expected to generate $35 million in revenue combined for the 2025 budge year, or about 1.9 percent of the current total general education fund operating budget.

And all three campuses want to charge more in mandatory fees too — with UI proposing an across-the-board 2.5 percent fee increase; UNI proposing a 3 percent fee increase for all students; and Iowa State aiming to up fees by 1.3 percent at the undergrad level and 1.4 percent for graduate students.

All told, for resident undergraduate students, total tuition and mandatory fees — if approved — will increase nearly 3 percent at UI, to $11,283; about 2.8 percent at Iowa State to $10,786; and about 2 percent at UNI to $9,936.

“Funding from the proposed tuition increases will help address growing financial challenges including inflationary cost increases, recruiting and retaining faculty and staff in national markets, meeting collective bargaining terms, deferred maintenance needs in academic facilities, and student financial aid to provide higher education opportunities to more students,” according to the tuition proposal.

Including room and board and other ancillary costs, the estimated total cost to be a resident undergrad next year is $28,617 at UI; $25,052 at Iowa State; and $23,372 at UNI.

Differential tuition

Although the universities did limit their general education appropriations request for next year to $14.8 million more — the board in total had asked for a $40 million increase, including other special purpose requests.

That included $10 million for a new UI “Rural Health Care Partnership”; $10 million for an ISU STEM workforce initiative; $2.5 million for UNI’s “Educators for Iowa” program; and $1 million for expanded mental health care resources — all of which was left out of the funding bill heading to the governor’s desk.

In hopes of supporting specific and more costly programs, the campuses for next fall are proposing some “differential” tuition increases — including a 14 percent hike, or $1,657 increase, for undergraduates in the UI Radiation Sciences Program.

“This is the year-two request of a three-year phasing in of tuition increases to ultimately reach a balanced budget,” according to the tuition proposal. “The increase is needed to fully fund the Radiation Sciences Program. The program is essential to UI’s mission and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, as it provides health care personnel in the areas of diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy.

“There are critical shortages of these health care personnel.”

Iowa State is proposing for some of its Ivy College of Business students a tuition increase of $1,340 for applicable resident students and $2,476 for non-residents beginning fall 2024. And UNI wants to charge its new bachelor’s of nursing students an additional $1,944 in tuition “to support the simulation and lab equipment costs for the newly created program.”

Lawmakers and tuition

When comparing across the universities’ respective peer groups, UI sits near the bottom for resident undergrad rates and at the bottom of the peer list for non-resident undergrad expenses — while Iowa State and UNI hover in the middle.

At the graduate level, all three are near the middle of the pack — with Iowa State inching up to fourth from the top of its peers in resident graduate rates, coming in lower than just Virginia Tech, Michigan State, and Colorado State universities.

Lawmakers earlier this year — through a sweeping higher education bill aimed at restructuring the university and regent systems, giving lawmakers more power in governance and presidential hires, for example — proposed a tuition cap and freeze that would have limited undergraduate increases at 3 percent for incoming students and then held resident undergraduate rates steady for four years.

That bill did not gain enough support to pass this session, although some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates were included in the appropriations bill.