A greater look at UW Tuition Increases

By: Curt Hogg

On April 10, the UW System Board of Regents approved a proposed tuition increase for UW-Madison within the same week that UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced that the university was seeking those raises.

The increases affect undergraduate nonresident, international and graduate professional school students. Originally, the university sought a four-year increase, but the Board of Regents amended the request, only approving of a two-year increase. The final two-year increase will b e brought back to the Regents for discussion.

Nonresident tuition will increase $3,000 for two years until 2017, going from $25,523 to $31,523 by the second year. If the second two-year increase gets approved, tuition will rise $2,000 each year over the final two years, reaching $35,523.

International students’ tuition hikes follow the same pattern, but with a $4,000 increase in 2015-16 , as opposed to $3,000 for nonresidents. At the end of the four years, international students’ tuition would be $36,523, or a 43 percent increase from its $25,523 price tag in 2014-15.

Business, Pharmacy, Medicine and Public Health, Veterinary Medicine and Nursing are the five professional schools the university is raising tuition for. Both residents and nonresidents in these schools are affected, though nonresident tuition rises by a greater percentage in each program.

Tuition for Wisconsin students in the School of Business graduate programs will go from $13,184 to $19,162 by 2018-19, and from $26,678 to $38,777 for nonresidents. Doctor of Pharmacy resident students’ tuition rises from $15,157 to $21,396 and from $27,614 to $38,980 for nonresidents. Medicine and Public Health tuition will go to $34,478 and $44,374 from $23,807 and $33,704 for residents and nonresidents, respectively. For Veterinary Medicine graduate students, tuition will increase from $23,807 to $26,126 for residents and $24,769 to $44,769 for nonresidents. Graduate students in the Nursing School will see tuition go up from $13,409 to $19,609 for residents and from $30,068 to $38,068 for nonresidents.