Tuition increases & layoffs, as a result of cuts to higher education

I thought it might be useful to start a thread to share information about universities announcing tuition increases and/or significant cost cutting measures. UMN’s announcement of tuition increases + cuts was mentioned by @SJ2727 on the HS class of 2026 thread a couple weeks ago, and today I came across the following article that mentions UMN and other universities (gift link):

I’m curious which additional universities may have announced significant tuition increases, or layoffs or other cuts? I expect that we’ll also see more announcements in this category.

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Highlighting some of who is mentioned in the NYT article above:

Public universities in the Midwest are raising prices for out-of-state students, as Florida schools consider making the same move for the first time since 2012.

Cornell and Duke are among the colleges weighing layoffs. The University of Minnesota is cutting hundreds of jobs, even as undergraduate tuition soars as much as 7.5 percent.

The turmoil is not limited to any one type of university or college, or any one state. A day before Michigan State University trustees opted for tuition increases, a California State University campus minutes from the Pacific Ocean announced that it was trimming its work force.

“We will need to continue to reduce spending and make increasingly difficult choices to ensure fiscal discipline,” Jeffrey P. Gold, the University of Nebraska’s president, told regents before a vote on Thursday to impose cuts and increase tuition. Students who enroll at the flagship campus in Lincoln are poised to pay about 5 percent more.

In neighboring Kansas, only one of the state’s six public universities did not propose a tuition increase for the coming school year. And University of Oklahoma leaders just raised tuition again, too.

The University System of Maryland’s chancellor, Jay A. Perman, bluntly told employees in a video this month that the schools would absorb a 7 percent cut for the coming fiscal year.

“A 7 percent cut simply can’t be achieved on every campus in a way that doesn’t touch any of our people,” Dr. Perman said.

Duke University is seeking about $350 million in cuts, amounting to roughly 10 percent of its budget.
..
Harvard, which has clashed bitterly with the Trump administration, is urgently seeking contributions from donors and has been making cuts, partly because billions of dollars in its endowment have restricted uses. And in a statement on Wednesday ominously titled “a message on financial austerity,” leaders at Cornell, which also has a substantial endowment, described a dire landscape.

Public university trustees in Tennessee will soon vote on a proposal to raise in-state tuition by 3 percent at outposts in Chattanooga, Martin and Pulaski. The state’s flagship university in Knoxville, however, is not looking to increase tuition, though it is seeking a slight bump in mandatory fees

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Thanks for pulling out the university names!

In the comment sidebar, the author identified this one as CSU Channel Islands. (Another comment also suggested that CSUCI’s cuts were a result of prior budget issues, unlike the other schools listed that are largely responding to recent federal cuts.)

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Still better than bringing in private equity folks.

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It’s tough right now for those who have put in the years and work for doctorates. Student enrollment may be going down due to demographics, at least at some point, so that may also mean faculty and staff cuts (and perhaps tuition increases, not sure).

I have read about Clark making changes (“reorganizing”) recently. Brandeis cut their grad music program and their resident quartet.

As you all know, some smaller schools are folding entirely. And humanities seem to be the first to get cut.

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budget yes, but really due to a drop of student enrollment. Certainly don’t need as many faculty/admin if you lose 35% of your customers.

“But by far the biggest reason for CSUCI’s cash crunch is its declining enrollment, Olin said. In the fall semester that just ended, CSUCI had 4,153 full-time students. That’s about as many as it had in 2013, and it’s 35% below the university’s peak enrollment of about 6,400 in the fall of 2019.”

I think this is the tip of the iceberg. If the changes to higher education funding being proposed in the BBB are passed, the other shoe will drop with an extremely loud thud. I don’t want to what-if anything, since it’s not passed at this point, but if it passes - I will definitely weigh in on the layoffs I expect the cuts would result in.

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I pretty much think every school is reorganizing to some extent.

Santa Barbara, mountains, ocean, big city access–sign me up !

well kinda. CS Channel Islands is about 20 minutes from the closest ocean beach, 45 miles to Santa Barbara, not sure of your definition of big city, but the local communities are <100k pop.

LA is a big city. Everything is within a reasonable distance.

I love the ocean, but it’s almost a 12 hour drive to my favorite beach area and over 6 hours drive time to my second choice beach, so I’ll take 20 minutes commute to the beach anytime.

From the article:

Some schools are more reliant than others on federal money, especially research institutions

I would love to see a list of schools with relatively little federal money, especially the research dollars. Those schools (that also have healthy finances) would seem like a good place for flight to safety for people who want some relative certainty about their college experience.

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Georgetown might be one.

I don’t think any U with a medical school or its affiliated hospitals can be considered a sure bet re: federal funding.

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almost by definition, all R1’s are gonna be drinking from the federal trough. Georgetown took in $195m last year. And, yeah, if you have a med school…

Total research dollars, not just federal.

https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingBySource&ds=herd

btw: don’t forget to mentally run the per capita numbers.

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LACs don’t typically rely on federal research dollars to a great extent. Some are already noting that in their marketing materials and admissions sessions.

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Seek and ye shall find (a list with 90 schools on it):

The 15 schools in the list with the highest percentage of federal funding:

School % total federal funding % federal student aid % federal grants & contracts
MIT 48% 0% 48%
Johns Hopkins 42% 0% 41%
U. of Alabama-Birmingham 37% 2% 35%
Duke 31% 1% 30%
U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor 29% 2% 27%
Northwestern 29% 2% 27%
U. of Hawaii 27% 2% 25%
Montana State 26% 2% 24%
UNC-Chapel Hill 24% 2% 23%
UC-San Diego 24% 2% 22%
Rice 23% 1% 22%
Columbia 22% 0% 22%
Yale 22% 1% 21%
Princeton 22% 1% 20%
U. of Wisconsin-Madison 21% 1% 19%

The 15 schools in the list with the lowest percentage of federal funding:

School % total federal funding % federal student aid % federal grants & contracts
Muhlenberg 5% 3% 3%
Pomona 5% 2% 3%
Chapman 5% 2% 3%
Wellesley 5% 2% 3%
SUNY Purchase 4% 4% 0%
American 4% 1% 3%
Swarthmore 4% 2% 2%
Ithaca 4% 3% 1%
Middlebury 4% 1% 3%
The New School 4% 2% 3%
The U. of Tampa 3% 3% 0%
Sarah Lawrence 3% 2% 1%
Whitman 2% 2% 1%
Emerson 2% 1% 1%
Lafayette 2% 1% 1%

And sometimes the federal student aid + federal grants & contracts exceeds the total federal funding, but I suspect that’s due to the rounding of info (there were only a couple of examples of this, total discrepancy of 1% or less).

In SY22-23, federal funding made up 12% of Georgetown’s total revenue (1% student aid, 11% in grants and contracts).

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The figure of $140 million excludes funding cuts for the School of Medicine, which will separately decide on reductions in the coming weeks.

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From the bad news for science majors thread (I think it’s relevant here too)

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Not sure if this is directly related to cuts to higher ed, but…

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