Topeka ? Kansas University is proposing lower tuition for some Missouri students in hopes of filling more slots at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

Under the proposal before the Kansas Board of Regents, students from an 11-county area in Missouri would pay the same tuition as Kansas residents pay at the Edwards Campus.

“We have always taken pride in being known as KU’s campus for greater Kansas City, but we have not been able to recruit students from the Missouri side,” KU officials said in a memo to the regents. Less than 2 percent of undergraduates at the Edwards Campus come from Missouri.

“We expect the proposed waiver will increase enrollment and net tuition revenue. It also expands the impact KU will have on workforce and economic development in Kansas City,” the memo said.

The Board of Regents will consider the plan Wednesday during its monthly meeting.

Currently, KU offers on the Edwards Campus the Metro KC Tuition Waiver for students from Clay, Cass, Jackson and Platte counties. Under that program, graduate students from those counties pay the same tuition rate as Kansas residents, and undergraduates pay a discounted rate that is less than the typical nonresident rate but more than the resident rate.

For example, a credit hour in the College of Liberal Arts at the Edwards Campus costs $363.15 for a Kansas resident, $759.45 for a non-Kansas resident, and $561.30 for a student from one of those four Missouri counties who is taking advantage of the waiver. In addition, the Missouri students are limited to six credit hours.

KU proposes increasing the tuition waiver for undergraduates to make tuition the same as resident rates and removing the limit on credit hours. They also want to apply the waiver to students, both graduate and undergraduate, from seven more counties: Buchanan, Clinton, Ray, Lafayette, Johnson, Henry and Bates.

In addition, the school wants to extend the tuition break to nondegree-seeking students who are continuing their education.

Reducing the undergraduate per credit hour from $561.30 to $363.15 would put KU in a more competitive position against the University of Missouri at Kansas City, where tuition is $351 per hour, KU officials said.