TTU Raises Tuition 4%

The Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees unanimously approved a 4 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees.

Based on board documents, that means tuition and fees at Tech will go up about $342 for all students.

Before the vote, members said they didn’t like doing it and asked for a financial plan to avoid increases next year.

Trustee Capt. Barry Wilmore said he didn’t want to burden students for the same services.

“Is this increase putting a burden, I understand the different socioeconomic statuses and how that played into their decision, I understand that too. But still, there’s some students that’s going to pay this X amount more just to go to school and do the same thing last  semester that they did this semester, same number of hours and it’s going to cost this much more,” Wilmore said.

Trustee Johnny Stites said he hoped Tech leaders would have a financial plan in place to prevent a similar increase next year.

Board Chairman Tom Jones said he supported the measure this year.

“My personal opinion is that I support this but, you can’t keep doing it year after year, at some point you have to make a more cost-effective educational model, but as I understand it, this is the problem throughout all higher education, it just costs more,” Jones said.

Last year, the total bill for average students was $8,551. This year that will go up to $8,893.