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Missouri universities use student fees to avoid tuition increase cap

Auditor report finds fees increased 138 percent over six years

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri’s public universities increase student fees to get around a cap on in-state undergraduate tuition increases and make up for decreases in state funding, a state auditor report found.

The Higher Education Student Funding Act doesn’t define or limit student fees, making them a loophole in the law, State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s report said.

Galloway
Galloway

“The purpose of the Higher Education Student Funding Act is to keep the cost of college affordable for Missouri students and families. It defeats the intent of the law when there is no cap or limit on certain fees,” Galloway said. “The General Assembly should take action to address this issue, because while fees continue to rise, state funding per student has decreased.”

Galloway recommended that the legislature look at these fees when evaluating the Higher Education Student Funding Act. That act passed in 2007 and limits how much schools can increase some fees and in-state undergraduate tuition. But it doesn’t limit student fees.

The limits are based on the performance of the economy. It’s tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Schools cannot raise in-state undergraduate tuition more than the increase in the CPI, unless they receive a waiver from the Commissioner of Higher Education.

So far, that waiver system has only been used once, in 2012. That year, cuts to higher education funding forced tuition increases above the CPI at 11 of 14 schools.

Over the time the law has been in effect, schools have raised in-state tuition 1.6 percent per year. The CPI has risen 1.8 percent over the same period of time. However, Galloway’s report shows that student fees have increased significantly during that period, at a rate of 138 percent from 2009 to 2015.

“Higher education has real and direct benefits to our state, both in its impact on our economy, and for individuals who want to better themselves through education,” Auditor Galloway said. “Those benefits must be reflected in the priority we place on state funding for higher education. This is critical at a time when public colleges and universities across the state are making tough decisions on how to best use the resources available to them in order to continue the important mission of educating future generations.”