The University of Vermont on Friday approved tuition increases for in-state and out-of-state students for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Board of trustees and university officials voted Friday to increase out-of-state tuition by 4.5% to $44,646 and in-state tuition by 2% to $16,606. It is the first time the university has increased in-state tuition since 2019. (The total cost for students living on campus is approximately $20,500 higher, including fees and other expenses.)
University officials said the overall cost of health care is the reason for the tuition increase. Health spending is expected to rise 17% next year, according to budget documents.
These and other rising expenses are adding pressure to the university’s $931 million operating budget. The school is filling a $10 million budget gap in the current fiscal year with excess reserve funds, board of trustees member Donald McCree said at the meeting.
“These are not operating funds that we cannot rely on in the long term,” he said.
Patricia Prelock, who stepped in as the university’s interim president just a few weeks ago, said during the meeting that she supports raising tuition.
“Although it pains me because the first time my team gave me four and a half points I said: ‘This is a non-starter’. “I just can’t go there,” she said. “At the same time, I have to be a financially responsible leader.”
The university also approved $4 million in additional revenue by adding $1,000 in fees for students enrolled in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the Grossman School of Business and the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences are.
The rising cost of health care in Vermont is impacting institutions and businesses across the state. For UVM, school officials say, it jeopardizes the university’s goals of remaining affordable and competing with equivalent institutions in the country.
The school has worked in recent years to strengthen its research capacity as well as its graduate and doctoral students. Offers. It will soon receive an award as a top research company and hopes to continue to drive this growth.
But the university’s health care costs have increased dramatically – by 23.3% in 2023 and 18.7% in the last fiscal year, according to budget documents presented at the meeting.
“This is not sustainable in the long term,” UVM Trustee Ed Pagano said during the meeting. “People need to realize that something needs to change.”
Trustees at the meeting noted that the tuition increases will generate only a fraction of the funds needed to offset the rising expenses they are seeing. And the rising costs go beyond healthcare.
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While McCree called the university’s health care expenses the “most painful,” he noted that other costs weigh on the university’s budget, including personnel costs and oil, gas and utility bills.
University officials noted at Friday’s meeting that while rising inflation costs are a challenge, they believe it is something the university can overcome.
It will require “really hard work from the administration in terms of possible structural changes,” McCree said, as well as an overview of what programs the university can afford to continue. “It’s going to take a while for this to go through,” he said.
“This is a problem, but not a crisis,” McCree added.
