State university board of governors vote to freeze tuition for Pennsylvania residents

Tuition for in-state students at Pennsylvania’s 10 state universities will remain unchanged for the coming academic year following a vote Wednesday by the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education Board of Governors.

The vote to keep tuition frozen for the seventh consecutive year follows the passage of the state budget last week with a 6% increase in funding for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). That represents $35.1 million in new money for the universities.

Board of Governors Chairperson Cynthia Shapira thanked Gov. Josh Shapiro and the legislature for increasing the state’s investment. In a statement, PASSHE noted that maintaining tuition at the current level for seven consecutive years is equivalent to a 25% savings for students compared with tuition if it had increased at the rate of inflation.

“State funding is a lifeline for our students to afford college, and freezing tuition for another year was a top priority for PASSHE as we continue to transform the State System for the future, support opportunities for more people to get a valuable education and prepare graduates to fill shortages throughout the workforce and serve their communities,” Shapira said.

Tuition for Pennsylvania residents is $3,858 per semester at nine of the universities (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Cheney, Commonwealth, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Millersville, Pennsylvania Western, Slippery Rock, and West Chester universities), PASSHE spokesperson Kevin Hensil said. Shippensburg University’s tuition is $319 per-credit, which the board of governors’ vote also freezes.

Each university individually sets tuition for graduate students and out-of-state undergraduates, as well as room, board and mandatory fees for all students. PASSHE enrolls 82,000 students annually, 90% of whom are Pennsylvania residents. The system offers the lowest tuition for a four-year course of study in the state.

Restructuring higher education in Pennsylvania was one of the main initiatives of Shapiro’s budget. 

In addition to performance-based grants for the state-related universities —University of Pittsburgh, and Lincoln, Penn State, and Temple universities — Shapiro in his March budget address called for the unification of the PASSHE universities with the state’s 15 community colleges under a common governance structure.

While that vision was criticized by Republican lawmakers for lacking detail, the General Assembly did pass legislation as part of the budget to create a state Board of Higher Education to serve as an overarching body to set goals and develop a strategic plan for access, quality, affordability, and accountability at publicly-funded universities. Among the board’s jobs is to develop a performance-based system to determine funding for the state-related universities.

PASSHE board members said the Board of Higher Education would help the system meet Pennsylvania’s workforce needs by improving support and coordination among all universities.

Chancellor Dan Greenstein noted that PASSHE has experienced the benefits of collaboration among its universities. Greenstein, who has led the system since 2018, oversaw a controversial consolidation of the system from 14 to 10 schools. Six of the universities with growing costs and lagging enrollment have merged into two regional institutions in the northern and western parts of the state.

“We believe a greater level of collaboration among all of higher education will be good for Pennsylvania,” Greenstein said. “The new State Board of Higher Education represents an opportunity for meaningful cooperation in a strategic manner to help colleges and universities better serve students, meet workforce development needs and support all communities.”

This story was originally published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star