With CSU's 4% tuition increase official, here's how costs compare to other universities

Kelly Lyell, Fort Collins Coloradoan
Updated ·5 min read

In-state students at Colorado’s two largest public universities are paying more than three times as much money each year on tuition and fees, after adjusting for inflation, as they did 50 years ago.

And they're paying more than double what students paid 20 years ago.

Colorado State University’s 4% increase in tuition this fall, coupled with a 2% rise in mandatory student fees, bring the annual base cost for a full-time undergraduate student attending both the fall and spring semesters to $13,010.

That’s 219.5% higher than the inflation-adjusted $4,073 that same student would have paid in 1973-74 and more than double the inflation-adjusted $6,187 that a student would have paid 20 years ago.

Inflation-adjusted figures for this story are from the Consumer Price Index calculator on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.

The CSU System Board of Governors formally approved the tuition hike of $198 a year for undergraduate Colorado resident students in 2023-24 for its main campus in Fort Collins last month.

Mandatory student fees of $2,710 a year for undergraduate students on the Fort Collins campus were also formally approved by the Board of Governors in the university’s annual budget.

Undergraduate tuition at CSU-Pueblo is increasing by 3%.

For comparison, here's what it costs to attend CU

The increase at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where in-state tuition is also increasing 4% this fall and mandatory student fees are going up 3.8%, brings the annual cost to $13,624.

That's a 239% jump from the inflation-adjusted cost of $4,019 50 years ago and more than double the inflation-adjusted $6,623 just 20 years ago.

CU’s Board of Regents approved the tuition and fee increases for its Boulder campus last month, as well.

The state legislature authorized tuition increases of up to 5% for 2023-24 at the state’s public colleges and universities.

Despite an 11.5% increase in state funding for higher education this year, Colorado still lags well behind most states. Only Arizona provided less state support per student than Colorado’s $2,909 in 2021, the most recent year a state-by-state ranking was available in a National Science Foundation database.

CSU chancellor says tuition increases pay for raises

Colorado State University System Chancellor Tony Frank and CU leaders said the tuition hikes for this fall were necessary to raise additional revenue to increase pay for faculty, staff and other workers on their campuses.

State classified personnel at both universities are receiving 5% increases, as required by the state. Administrative professionals and faculty, both tenured and nontenured, at CSU’s Fort Collins and Pueblo campuses will also receive 5% pay increases, while those at CU’s four campuses will receive merit increases of 3% to 4%, according to the budgets approved by the governing boards of both universities.

“We started out this budget cycle hoping to cover mandatory costs and make progress on employee compensation — and we’re grateful we’ve been able to do both while keeping tuition increases at a reasonable level,” Frank said in a news release after the CSU budget for 2023-24 was approved. “That has only been possible with the hard work and dedication of our state leaders, who recognize the importance of keeping Colorado higher education accessible, affordable, and able to compete for and retain top faculty and staff.”

But “tuition is increasing much faster than the rate of inflation; this isn’t sustainable,” Rob Long, then-president of CSU’s student government, said in January, while launching a petition-drive against the tuition increase.

Here's a look at CSU tuition increases in past years

CSU increased tuition rates:

  • 2% in 2022-23

  • 3% in 2021-22

  • Before that, there was a two-year period without an increase. That hadn't happened since the late 1960s, when in-state undergraduate tuition was just $225 a year and mandatory student fees totaled $117 annually, according to institutional reports.

Going back to the early 1980s, tuition went up by more than 10% per year as the state began shifting the cost of higher education from taxpayers to the individual student.

The Colorado Commission on Higher Education began setting maximum rates of annual tuition increases in 1985, generally keeping annual increases below 10%.

Yet they still jumped by 15% or more year-over-year in 2005, 2007 and 2011.

After a 20% annual increase in 2011, CSU’s tuition increases dropped to 9% the next two years and have been at 5.5% or lower for the past 10 years.

More: CSU community asks: Why do pay raises have to come from tuition increases? Tony Frank answers

How CSU tuition compares with neighboring states' universities

Colorado’s neighboring states all provide more state money per student for higher education than Colorado. And they all charge in-state undergrad students less for tuition and mandatory fees each year than CSU and CU.

Kansas State University and Utah State University are both land-grant institutions like CSU that offer many of the same degree programs. Here are tuition and fees for in-state students for those and other similar universities:

  • Kansas State: $10,448

  • Utah State: $8,305

  • University of Wyoming: $7,028

  • University of New Mexico: $10,298 (not a land-grant institution)

Even with lower tuition, those institutions have all historically raised tuition and fees at rates far exceeding the rate of inflation.

  • Kansas State’s tuition and fees, in inflation-adjusted dollars, have increased 194.5% over the past 50 years and 56.2% in the past 20.

  • Utah State’s base tuition have increased 92.8% in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past 20 years (tuition and fees for 1973-74 school year were not available).

  • Base tuition and fees for in-state students at Wyoming have increased 166.5% in inflation-adjusted dollars over the past 50 years and 38.1% in the past 20 years.

  • New Mexico’s in-state tuition and fees have risen 234.9% in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past 50 years and 88.7% in the past 20.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: CU and CSU tuition going up 4%. Here's how they compare to others