Tuition Fees Rise At UMass, Spark Debate Over Public Funding

Earlier this month, the UMass board of trustees approved a 4.9 percent increase in student tuition for the next school year. The increase — which amounts to around $580 more per year — has sparked a debate over the responsibility of public institutions and the state government to provide quality, affordable public education.

Gov. Deval Patrick has said that the fee hikes come at a terrible time for students and families — the economy is still struggling and interest rates on federal student loans are poised to double July 1 unless Congress acts. Patrick called for UMass to dig deep in its own pockets to help students.

“I do believe that there is more work that UMass has to do systematically to review how to squeeze costs out and gain efficiencies and turn that more to the benefit of teaching and learning,” Patrick said.

In proposing to raise tuition and fees, UMass President Robert Caret also threw down a challenge: UMass will freeze tuition and fee hikes for two years if the state funds 50 percent of the UMass system, as it used to.

In an editorial for The Boston Globe, Caret wrote, “A decade ago, the state provided 61 percent of the funding for education programs at UMass; students and their families paid 39 percent. Today, that ratio is nearly reversed.”

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