Ohio State trustees approve increasing tuition and fees by 3% for incoming freshman class

Ohio State University freshmen will be a paying more in tuition and fees this year.

Ohio State's Board of Trustees met Friday at WOSU Headquarters to approve raising tuition and fees by 3% for the upcoming academic year.

That 3% increase will cost Ohio residents about $12,859 a year for tuition and fees, a change of about $374. That does not include housing and dining costs or additional fees related to specific majors.

Returning undergraduates will not see their tuition increase because the Ohio State Tuition Guarantee freezes tuition costs for each cohort of students. This is the seventh consecutive year Ohio State has increased the cost of attendance.

"We want to make sure this is affordable and competitive while also being able to invest and reinvest," said Tom Mitevski, chair of the board of trustee's finance committee.

Nonresidents will see a higher increase of 5.2%, or $1,269, in their tuition and fees, for a total of $38,365 a year. Housing and dining costs will increase 3% each. Graduate students, both in-person and online programs, will also pay more in tuition. Residents will see a 3.8% increase, and non-residents will be slightly higher at 4.2%.

Michael Papadakis, Ohio State's senior vice president and chief financial officer, attributed the need to raise tuition and fees to less state funding and high inflation. In a graph comparing what percent of Ohio State's student support funds comes from state funding versus tuition and fees, Papadakis said it's flipped in the last few decades.

In 1981, Ohio State received 68% of its funding through the state and 32% from tuition. This year, state funding dropped to 25% and tuition dollars made up 75% of its funding.

"(Student Share of Instruction) has certainly not kept pace with inflation over the last 20 years," Papadakis said. "We've gone from mostly state funded to mostly funded by tuition and fees."

Papadakis said Ohio State is expecting to enroll about 82,000 students this fall across all of its campuses, with about 65% being residents and 35% being out-of-state students.

Kris Devine, deputy CFO and vice president of operations, said Ohio State is the second most-affordable university of Ohio's six selective universities.

Last May, Ohio State raised tuition and fees 4.6% for resident students, which was criticized by Gov. Mike DeWine.

Ohio State's first day of fall semester is Aug. 22.

Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for her Mobile Newsroom newsletter here and Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here.

shendrix@dispatch.com

@sheridan120

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State trustees approve 3% tuition increase for incoming class