The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) voted recently not to raise tuition rates for the 2023-24 academic year at 25 of 26 institutions, meaning undergraduate and graduate tuition will remain the same at most institutions for the fourth year in a row.
This is the sixth time in eight years that the Board has approved keeping tuition costs flat at all but one of USG’s public colleges and universities.
Middle Georgia State University — the one exception — will be in the second of a three-year plan to align its undergraduate tuition with other universities in the same academic sector.
“By holding the line on tuition, the Board of Regents is once again championing the students and families of Georgia,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “What should also be clear is that the University System of Georgia remains strongly focused on our highest priorities of degree attainment, efficiency and affordability. That doesn’t negate the financial headwinds and increasing costs our institutions face, and I look forward to working with Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly to do everything we can to try to restore funding.”
The decision not to increase tuition further highlights USG’s strong commitment to keeping college affordable for students in Georgia.
Just last year, the board eliminated a mandatory Special Institutional Fee that students had been charged systemwide since 2009. The fee had been established to provide financial support for high-quality academic programs and operations during the reductions in state funding caused by the Great Recession.
Coming at the same time as tuition was held flat, the fee’s elimination reduced college costs for the 2022-23 academic year and saved students anywhere between $340 to $1,088 for the year, depending on the institution they attended.
USG is the third lowest for median in-state undergraduate tuition and fees at four-year institutions among the 16 states that make up the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), according to the latest available data.
USG is also now the seventh lowest in average tuition and fees among public four-year peers in the nation, per College Board national data.
“We have been a good deal for Georgia,” Perdue said. “With the board’s decision today, we remain a great deal. Still, our institutions face strong financial challenges. We’re reaching a tipping point at which we need to mitigate inflationary pressures in order to maintain the quality of education.”
Those challenges include a combined loss of $71.6 million in state funds for FY24 at 20 institutions due to enrollment declines. The Georgia General Assembly also reduced the system’s state funding for FY24 by an additional $66 million.
On top of those reductions, institutions are battling inflation, with some campuses seeing utility costs rise by as much as 40%. The university system at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic also sustained a 10% budget reduction in FY21 of about $230 million, which has never been restored.
Tuition rates for each institution may be found here.
