After nine years of holding tuition flat, the UNC Board of Governors is considering allowing most system universities to increase tuition up to 3% for 2026-27, including at UNC-Chapel Hill. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors is widely expected to grant approval Thursday to 12 universities seeking tuition increases. The move comes five months after the system first announced that it would allow individual institutions to propose modest increases of up to 3% for resident undergraduates.
In-state undergraduate tuition has not increased in the UNC System for nine straight years. System leaders say inflation and budget uncertainty at state and federal levels now make it a necessity.
Only UNC-Asheville and Appalachian State University sought less than the 3% increase they were allowed to request.
Source: UNC System OfficeOn average, the proposed rate change will increase tuition by $125 for in-state students and by $983 for out-of-state undergrads. Graduate students will also be asked to pay more, with in-state graduate students seeing their tuition bills increase on average by $186. Out-of-state grad students will see a $580 increase.
Four schools – Elizabeth City State, UNC-Pembroke, Western Carolina and Fayetteville State – are part of the NC Promise initiative and will continue to offer reduced resident tuition rates set by the state legislature. (FSU is seeking a 7.3 % increase for resident graduate students and a 6.2 % increase for nonresident graduate students.)
UNC’s fixed tuition guarantee means that the proposed tuition hike will only apply to new students who enroll in the fall of 2026, not students currently enrolled.
UNC System Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Haygood said a clear theme in the tuition proposals presented by each school was the desire to retain high-quality faculty.
“You can see campuses wanting to invest in student services, particularly advising, both academic advising and career counseling,” said Haygood. “Lastly, inflation is always in the background as a continued challenge that our students, our campuses have been dealing with for many years and have been absorbing.”
The board’s Committee on Budget and Finance voted to approve the system’s requests Wednesday, but not without debate.
Art Pope, the conservative former NC House member and state budget director under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, argued against the proposed tuition increases. (Photo: UNC BoG livestream)Art Pope, the conservative former NC House member and state budget director under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, cautioned his fellow board members not to be so quick to embrace the tuition requests. Pope said in recent years, North Carolina’s per capita income growth has not kept up with the tuition increase.
“We can still do so much better reducing the nickels and dimes that become millions,” said Pope, “prioritizing the core academic mission of teaching and research in other areas and making it as free as practicable tuition for our in-state residents. Other states are doing it.”
Haygood said since June of 2025, UNC institutions have reduced their administrative headcount by almost 1,000 positions. Far from nickels and dimes, Haygood said, the system has realized annualized savings of $78.5 million.
Pope was unmoved. He noted both Purdue University and the University of Florida have kept their overhead fixed while expanding enrollment.
“Some of our smaller campuses are running leaner and meaner,” Pope conceded. “They may need tuition increases or they may need more General Assembly increases, but the first resort after a bout of inflation should not be raising tuition on North Carolina families.”
Pope said that he hoped moving forward, UNC system President Peter Hans and the system office would give more “detailed, directed, and greater challenges” to the campuses to continue to tighten their belts.
Pope also argued against the system approving fee increases for public safety policing. “Public safety benefits students, faculty, employees, and the general public. I don’t think it is appropriate to be [student] fee-based,” he reasoned.
Board of Governors member Harry Brown (Photo: NorthCarolina.edu)Former Republican state senator Woody White said that, as an attorney serving on the Board of Governors, he had problems with the process of approving the requests as a package, rather than on a per-school basis.
“It would be more transparent and certainly more informative for the public to have each campus come forward in-person in this room before a microphone and make their case and meet their burden of proof as to why a tuition increase is the option of last resort, that all waste and fraud has been cut and that there is no other choice,” said White.
But another former Republican state senator, committee vice-chair Harry Brown, sided with the campuses. Brown said the failure of the General Assembly to finalize a state budget in 2025 had put “another burden” on the UNC system, and the schools did a remarkable job finding areas to reduce expenses.
“We’ve asked a lot of these campuses for quite a while now,” said Brown, an Onslow County Republican. “They’ve done a lot. Maybe we need to give them a little relief at this point.”
The 2026-27 tuition proposals will go before the full UNC Board of Governors on Thursday.
Hence then, the article about unc board of governors poised to increase tuition despite pushback from prominent conservative was published today ( ) and is available on NC news line ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( UNC Board of Governors poised to increase tuition despite pushback from prominent conservative )
Also on site :
- When Does the Rest of 'Bridgerton' Season 4 Come Out?
- Ann Godoff, Penguin Press Founder and Editor, Dies at 76
- Hungary’s Orban orders extra security, alleges Ukraine attacks plot