For release: June 15, 2012
For press information, contact Curt Guenther, 901-678-2843

The Business and Finance Committee of the Tennessee Board of Regents has recommended increasing tuition at all TBR-governed public universities and community colleges for the 2012-2013 academic year.  The committee’s recommendation will be presented at TBR’s next quarterly meeting, June 28-29, and will not be final until it is voted on by the full board.

For the University of Memphis, including the main campus, the Lambuth Campus, and all satellite campuses, the recommendation is an 8.2 percent increase.  This means that an in-state undergraduate student taking a full academic course load (12 hours) will pay $3,952 per semester in tuition.  Students receiving the Hope Lottery Scholarship will be able to apply that stipend of $2,000 per semester to their tuition.

An in-state graduate student taking a full course load (10 hours) will pay $4,981 per semester under the new plan.  However, for graduate students and undergraduates alike, the U of M continues to remain below the peer average for tuition, according to the Southern Regional Educational Board. 

An out-of-state undergraduate student (12 hours) will pay $11,308 per semester, while an out-of-state graduate student (10 hours) will now pay $11,191 per semester.  

In-state students at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law who are full-time (11 hours) will have an 8.2 percent tuition increase this fall just like other U of M students and will now pay $8,357 per semester.  Out-of-state law students will now pay $19,293 per semester in tuition. The law school has been recognized by PreLaw Magazine as one of the top five “best value” law schools in the nation.

Dr. Shirley Raines, president of the University of Memphis, said of the tuition increase, “Adequate funding is necessary for the University of Memphis to continue its primary goals of providing a high quality education and graduating our students in a timely manner.  Still, it is unfortunate that our students must continue to bear the responsibility for closing the gap in state funding and our funding requirements.

“Over the past four years, state funding for higher education has been reduced by a total of $41.7 million for the University of Memphis alone, and it will be reduced by another $1.8 million in the upcoming fiscal year.  This equates to a 35% reduction in state funding, or more than $43.5 million. 

“Despite the reduction in state funds, however, the goals of the University of Memphis remain the same – to provide classes and programs for students’ progress toward graduation in a timely manner, restoring full-time faculty positions in areas of student enrollment growth, funding the state-mandated salary increase of 2.5% for all higher education employees, and funding to address rising fixed costs.”

Raines also noted that the University continues to take numerous steps to control costs while keeping student access and reasonable fees as high priorities.  These cost-saving steps include process improvement initiatives, a shared services initiative, plus streamlining, consolidating, and reorganizing to gain efficiencies in the University’s operations and programs.