Tuition, Room and Board to Rise 3.65 Percent
Hike comparable to those of other universities
Tuition and room and board at Boston University will rise 3.65 percent for the 2010-2011 academic year, to $39,314 for standard tuition and $12,260 for basic room and board.
In an e-mail sent to students and parents, University President Robert A. Brown said the increase, approved recently by the Board of Trustees, was the smallest percentage increase since 1969.
Brown described next year’s tuition hike as the minimum needed to sustain the quality of academic experience at BU. He said the University has experienced a 10 percent rise in the cost of health benefits for faculty and staff and a nearly 12 percent increase in applicants for financial aid among incoming students. The financial aid budget has been increased by 6 percent.
“Our efforts to control costs and maintain quality have been successful,” Brown wrote. “We have been able to recruit outstanding new faculty members and develop new programs, such as our undergraduate major in neuroscience, which is drawing even more students than we had projected. We are about to undertake a multiyear project to extend wireless technology to all classrooms, dining areas, and throughout our residences. We will undertake a major project beginning this summer that will reduce our energy costs and our environmental impact, and we are preparing to begin construction on our new East Campus Student Center.”
BU’s tuition hike is in line with those announced by other universities. Tuition and room and board at Washington University will rise 3.9 percent. Brown University is increasing by 4.5 percent. American University will climb 4.7 percent, Emory 2.9 percent, and Georgetown 2.7 percent.
Executive Vice President Joseph Mercurio says that the University has worked hard to find sustainable cost reductions that will not adversely impact student education.
“Offices associated with managing campus events were merged and downsized,” he says. “Publications have migrated from print to Web-based distribution. Information Technology has merged and downsized disparate desktop support units throughout the University. The computer store was closed, and a new integrated help center has been developed.”
Mercurio says that the increases are part of an overall plan to ensure that faculty and staff will receive salary increases, new academic programs will be initiated next fall, and additional faculty will continue to be recruited.
Art Jahnke can be reached at jahnke@bu.edu.
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