Fort Hays State seeks 4% increase
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Administrators of public universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system proposed student tuition increases for undergraduate resident students in the upcoming academic year ranging from 2.5% at Pittsburg State University to 4% at Fort Hays State University.
The outlier was Emporia State University, which responded to steady enrollment declines by requesting no increase in tuition for the second consecutive year.
To varying degrees, the six Board of Regents universities in Kansas grapple with a decline in the college-age population, an ongoing crash in international student enrollment, flat state appropriations, instability in federal research spending as well as inflation in operational costs, pressure to raise employee compensation and demands for substantive direct support of college athletics.
The nine-member Board of Regents has authority over tuition adjustments, but typically recommendations from campus leadership have been adopted.
Here are tuition rate increases proposed by university officials for in-state undergraduate students in the 2025-2026 academic year: University of Kansas, 3%; Kansas State University and Wichita State University, 3.5%; Pittsburg State University, 2.5%; and Fort Hays State University, 4%.
FHSU
On Wednesday, FHSU President Tisa Mason said during a presentation to the Board of Regents the 4% hike at FHSU would balance financial responsibilities of the university with the capacity of students to afford college.
“We believe that the proposed tuition increase is essential for maintaining our high-quality education and our student support services,” she said.
Board member Jon Rolph of Wichita asked whether Mason should consider a more aggressive tuition increase. FHSU historically maintained the state system’s lowest tuition rate due to revenue received from offering instruction to students in China, but the university found it necessary to raise undergraduate tuition by 7% in 2024 and 6% in 2025.
“Our students would loudly say, ‘No,'” Mason told Rolph. “They are feeling these increases right now.”
FHSU issues statement on proposed tuition hike
Scott Cason, FHSU chief communications officer, issued a written statement via email on the tuition increase today.
"Despite the growing costs of higher education, FHSU remains committed to providing its students with an affordable and high-quality college education," Cason said in the statement. "The tuition plan presented this week at the May Kansas Board of Regents meeting would increase tuition by $6.27 per credit hour for the 2025-26 academic year. FHSU has not proposed increasing any student fees for the coming academic year."
If FHSU’s tuition proposal is approved, FHSU Kansas resident students enrolled full-time will pay $3,055 per semester. Despite this proposed increase in our bottom-line price, an FHSU education will still be over $2,500 less per semester than the average cost of Kansas’s three research universities, and nearly $1,000 less per semester than the average of our fellow regional comprehensive universities, the statement said.
"FHSU’s request for a tuition increase is driven by the findings of a market and tuition and fees elasticity study, identifying new efficiencies, implementing budget cuts over the past three years, and incorporating the recommendations of a university tuition task force comprised of faculty, staff, and students in our tuition proposal. The increase will allow FHSU to remain a cost-effective, high-value educational choice," Cason said in the statement.
The final decision on FHSU’s tuition and fees schedule for the coming academic year will be made by the Kansas Board of Regents at the June meeting.
"To ensure the continuing affordability of an FHSU education, we also offer extensive scholarship opportunities, including an automatic first-time freshman scholarship worth up to $15,000 over four years," the statement said.
"FHSU’s affiliation with Fort Hays Tech | North Central and Fort Hays Tech | Northwest marks a strategic investment in expanding FHSU’s affordability advantage to more students and meeting the evolving professional and workforce development needs of students, communities and businesses across Kansas," the statement said.
Emporia State
Ken Hush, president of Emporia State University, defended the decision to request no tuition increase. It meant ESU would go without a tuition rate hike in five of the past seven years. The university projected it would collect 0.4% less revenue from tuition next academic year compared to the current year, a reflection of erosion in enrollment as ESU restructured the university by firing tenured professors and eliminating academic programs.
Since 2016, tuition revenue to ESU has fallen by 26% while the six-university system overall generated an additional $140 million from tuition during that period.
“We are recommending a zero percent increase for the second year in a row,” said Hush, who indicated ESU’s budget factored in a possible 3% enrollment decline in the upcoming year.
Rolph, however, reiterated that he was concerned adopting less-than-necessary tuition increases at this juncture could lead to substantial spikes in the future to fill revenue gaps.
“Do you have that mapped out over two, three, four years where it’s stair-stepped?” Rolph said.
Hush said ESU was proud to offer a high-quality education with a tuition rate that moderated financial barriers faced by students.
“Our goal is to keep it flat from here on out,” Hush said. “We believe its moving in the right direction.”
Wichita State
Rick Muma, president at Wichita State University, said the 3.5% surge in tuition recommended to the Board of Regents reflected an attempt to navigate a difficult financial landscape. He pointed to leveling of investment from the state, uncertainty regarding federal appropriations, employee compensation that was 16% below market rates, the need to allocate $3.5 million to athletics programs and the anticipated reduction in international student enrollment.
“We are seeing the effects of decreased enrollment among international students,” he said. “This just didn’t start this year. It’s significant for us.”
Muma said the tuition increase could net WSU about $3.4 million annually, but the decline in international students could reduce revenue by $5.5 million annually. He said the university planned to implement a 4.8% budget reduction.
K-State
Kansas State President Richard Linton said tuition for in-state undergraduates would climb by 3.5%, but a 2.5% tuition increase would be applied to veterinary medicine students and an 8% increase would be sought for students on the aviation campus in Salina.
He expected KSU enrollment to climb 2% in the upcoming year, which would be a second consecutive year of growth following nine years of decline.
“The goal is to be working as hard as we can from a student-affordability standpoint,” Linton said.
KU
KU Chancellor Doug Girod said the plan was to raise undergraduate tuition by 3% and boost student fees by 2%. These adjustments were in reaction to a projected 2.4% inflation rate, challenges with faculty salary compression, the flat state budget, reinvention of federal research funding and arrival of the long-anticipated enrollment decline tied to U.S. population trends. He expected KU also would experience a reduction among international students.
He said financial ramifications of these forces on higher education were difficult to fully predict, especially in terms of what could happen to student enrollment.
“I think the next two years are going to answer that question for all of us,” he said.
Tuition at the six universities in the Board of Regents’ system didn’t rise in 2020 and in 2023. In 2022, only KSU raised tuition. KU didn’t adopt a tuition increase from 2020 through 2023 before embracing increases of 5% in 2024 and 3.5% in the current academic year.
The Hays Post contributed to this story, adding comments from Fort Hays State University Communications.