MU, UMKC students to pay hundreds more for an education this fall
Students attending the University of Missouri System four campuses will pay 2.3% more in tuition and fees under a hike the system’s Board of Curators approved Thursday.
At University of Missouri-Kansas City, that means $232 more for Missouri undergraduates, from $10,063 to $10,295.
For University of Missouri students on the Columbia campus, the increase is $240: from $10,328 to $10,568.
Those payments typically cover base tuition, an information technology fee, and student activity, facility and services fees.
At some of the professional schools, such as dentistry, law and pharmacy, the increases vary from as low as 1.4% to as high as 6%.
Over the last five years MU has seen an average annual tuition increase of roughly 2.1%, said Christian Basi, spokesman for Mizzou and the UM System. “That average increase is the eleventh lowest among 14 neighboring universities,” including Iowa State, Kansas State, University of Kansas and University Oklahoma, he said.
Missouri law only allows public colleges and universities to increase tuition at the rate of inflation.
“So this increase is largely based on inflation for us,” Basi said . “It is going to help us cover general costs that rise from year to year.”
For the four-campus system, the tuition hike will generate approximately $14.8 million. Earlier this year, the state cut $52 million from the system because of revenues lost in the coronavirus pandemic. UMKC lost $9.8 million, and Mizzou lost $27.1 million.
Campuses have reduced spending across all departments.
“Without increases to tuition, the university will have to further reduce key instructional resources that drive tuition revenue and evaluate cutting key research initiatives,” university officials said in documents supporting the latest tuition hike.
