WILMINGTON — UNCW is once again raising tuition, this year by 6%, for all students aside from in-state undergrads; housing, meal plans and fees will also be going up.
READ MORE: UNCW over capacity for second year, campus plan includes 1 dorm over next decade
The UNCW Board of Trustees approved the increases at its meeting on Dec. 13, marking the fourth year in a row the entity has approved a tuition increase for out-of-state students and second year in a row for in-state graduates.
Taking effect in the fall of 2025, the proposed tuition and fee schedules will go before the UNC Board of Governors for final approval in the new year.
Resident graduate students will see the lowest price hike from $5,278 per semester to $5,595, a $371 increase. In-state undergraduate tuition will remain at $4,443; for the last eight years, the UNC System president has enacted a tuition freeze for this group.
Out-of-state undergraduates and graduates will see similar rate increases by $1,279 and $1,282, respectively, putting them at $22,597 and $22,646 per semester. Both groups have seen tuition costs increase by more than $4,000 since 2022.
The university examined several options — a 5%, 6%, or 7% tuition increase — and settled in the middle. It will bring in an additional $3.94 million, compared to $3.29 million (5%) and $4.6 million (7%).
The additional funding will cover several items, including a little more than $1 million dedicated to the university’s new salary ranges. Another $950,000 will go toward staffing several offices on campus, including new spaces in the Randall Library and Disability Resource Center.
The largest funding amount, $1.97 million, will be new and expand academic programs.
The university’s newest programs include a bachelor of science in workforce learning and development, a doctorate in educational leadership with a specialization in community college, and a bachelor of science in biochemistry.
Also getting a 6% increase is the university’s housing costs, despite the university struggling in recent years to house all students it requires to live on campus.
Ahead of the 2023 fall semester, the university revealed it received 5,294 housing contracts but only had 5,049 beds available across its residence halls. The extra 245 first-year students were to be housed in the dorms’ common areas and office spaces.
The following January, the university began leasing beds at Plato’s Lofts, an off-campus housing complex within a mile from campus. However, the university still over-enrolled in the fall of 2024 by 194 students.
A new dorm is planned for the site of the former Galloway Hall, which was the university’s oldest and largest dorm, now demolished. With 380 beds, it’s the only housing addition planned for the next five years, according to UNCW’s new campus area master plan. Based on UNCW’s five-year first-year growth rate of 6.4%, the university is set to exceed that bed count — with just freshmen — in another five years.
The overcrowding did not compel the university leaders to reconsider its two-year residency requirement. It’s one of three UNC System schools to require both freshmen and sophomores to live on campus.
Now, UNCW is planning to increase its housing prices by $200 to $300 per semester. Pricing for UNCW’s cheapest dorms (Belk, Graham-Hewlett, Schwartz) would now be $3,697 per semester, while its most expensive (single rooms in Terrapin and Loggerhead) is $5,443 per semester.
Compared to off-campus housing options, the university remains cheaper over the entirety of a contract, though monthly rents are more affordable off-campus. UNCW ranks fifth in highest housing costs in the UNC System — behind UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. State, UNC School of the Arts, and UNC Charlotte. Almost every system school is proposing housing increases this year.
All-access meal plans — also a required purchase for freshmen and sophomores — are also escalating by 5%, now costing between $2,197 and $2,489 per semester. The university notes price changes are needed to address wage and food cost increases.
Some student fees will also increase: the campus recreation fee by $7 and the commencement fee by $8, to address inflation.
[Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated UNCW was the only UNC System school with a two-year residency requirement; two others (Winston-Salem University and UNC-Pembroke) do as well. PCD regrets the error.]
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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