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Tuition and mandatory fees for Tennessee Tech will increase for the upcoming school year.
The Board of Trustees approved a 1.99 percent raise in flat-rate tuition Thursday. President Phil Oldham said non-mandatory fees for academic courses will be eliminated as a result.
“We will take those dollars, those new dollars in tuition to offset the reduction from eliminating these course fees,” Oldham said. “So for students through the course of an academic degree at Tennessee Tech, it should be cost neutral.”
A two dollar increase in mandatory fees was also included. Chair Trudy Harper said that extra money will be used to add psychiatric services to the counseling center. Harper said if adjustments need to be made in the future, the board would consider reviewing the new rates.
“This is why a local board works so well,” Harper said. “Because, we can take the chance to do this and try this. We strongly believe this is the right thing to do.”
Both fee increases combined comes in at 1.78 percent, and the drop of course fees brings payments down by 2.83 percent. Overall, incoming students will pay less on average by .84 percent.
In prior years, for example, a student taking a laboratory course would have a $100 fee charged in addition to tuition. This caused a student’s cost of attendance to fluctuate each semester, making it difficult to budget in advance. Starting this fall, Tech students will no longer be charged such fees.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission controls the allowed increase for tuition and mandatory fees. The max for this year was a combined two percent. Non-mandatory fees are controlled by the Board of Trustees making the elimination of course fees possible.
