New 'KU tuition grants' to boost financial aid by $2.2 million this fall

Editor's note: Full details on KU's tuition proposal are online at www.ku.edu/tuition. The site includes proposed tuition rates for all regents universities. Tuition charts for publication available via e-mail; contact kunews@ku.edu.

LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas 2002-03 tuition proposal unveiled today by the Kansas Board of Regents includes, for the first time, a significant increase in student financial aid. This will ensure that KU remains accessible to all students, according to Chancellor Robert Hemenway.

An estimated $2.2 million in "KU tuition grants" will be awarded to eligible students beginning in the fall semester. The new set-aside for financial aid would more than double the state-funded need-based aid currently available to KU students. This would be on top of the $128 million in loans, grants and scholarships from public and private sources that KU awards students each year.

"This substantial increase in grants to students will help keep KU affordable for those students who are most in need," said Hemenway.

Under the proposal announced today, tuition and fees at KU would increase by $300 a semester starting this fall for Kansas-resident undergraduate students taking 15 hours of credit. For nonresident undergraduates, the increase would be $438 a semester. The proposed increase for KU is nearly identical to the increase proposed today by Kansas State University. Full details are available online.

"No one ever wants a tuition increase," said Hemenway, "but KU is seriously underfunded compared to our peer universities. Our students and the people of Kansas can't afford for that to continue. The board asked regents institutions last fall to develop plans that would use tuition dollars to enhance educational quality on each campus. The proposal we've submitted achieves that goal."

In addition to funding KU tuition grants, the tuition increase will support a variety of initiatives to preserve academic excellence at KU, including:

 • upgraded classrooms
 • additional faculty
 • larger stipends for graduate assistants
 • expanded access to technology
 • stronger minority recruitment and retention
 • enhanced library services
 • faster introduction of online registration and related services
 • increased operating budgets for academic departments
 • additional support staff for student services in academic units.

"The beneficiaries will be, first and foremost, the students themselves," said Hemenway. "They will see better educational resources. And KU will remain a bargain in comparison with similar universities, both regionally and nationally."

Because tuition and fees represent only about 25 percent of the average total cost for a Kansas resident to attend KU (along with room and board, travel, books and personal expenses), the proposed changes increase a student's overall budget by roughly 5 percent.

Although the Board of Regents won't formally act on today's proposal until its June 26-27 meeting, KU is alerting current and prospective students now so they can plan their finances over the summer. Students who are eligible for a KU tuition grant will receive revised financial aid award information when final tuition rates are approved.