UW considers 7 percent tuition increase

SEATTLE – The University of Washington regents are talking about raising tuition 7 percent next fall, the maximum amount allowed in one year.

A decade of similar increases has nearly doubled the university’s tuition. It has gone up every spring since 1982, including raises of at least 6 percent every year for the past six.

This year’s tuition for in-state undergrads at UW is nearly $6,400. If the regents approve a 7 percent increase at their meeting next month, next year’s undergraduate students could be paying almost $6,800 for a three-quarter year.

“What if we were to say we don’t want (to increase tuition) 7 percent?” Regent Craig Cole asked the rest of the board Thursday. “That means something has got to give.”

Rising tuition is a sensitive subject among parents, students – and some members of Congress, who question how universities can keep asking for more money while their endowments grow. The UW has an endowment of more than $2 billion.

The proposal would raise tuition for many graduate students by the same percentage as undergraduates. And those seeking advanced degrees in law, business, medicine, pharmacy and dentistry would pay 10 percent more.

UW tuition rates are lower than pacesetter public universities such as the University of California system, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan.

Michigan undergraduates paid $10,500 for tuition this year. UC-Davis resident undergrads paid just over $8,000.

Except for the most recent budget, state support for the UW has dropped steadily over recent decades, so students are paying an increasing part of the cost of their education.

Of course, universities are expensive to run. Recently, the regents gave UW President Mark Emmert a raise that puts his annual salary at $905,000 and makes him one of the highest-paid presidents of any public university in the country.

Lawmakers are helping out. In the last two-year budget, approved in 2007, legislators gave the UW a 15 percent increase in funding, which was the biggest increase for the university in 20 years.

Emmert supports the idea of a sliding-scale model for tuition. The university recently introduced the “Husky Promise” program, guaranteeing free tuition to the neediest students.