photo by: University of Kansas

The skyline of the University of Kansas is pictured.

With tariffs and trade wars creating worries of extraordinary cost increases in households, students at the University of Kansas are likely to face a fairly ordinary 3% increase in tuition for the next school year.

It may be everybody else on campus who wants to buckle up for the unexpected.

“The amount of uncertainty is unprecedented,” Jeff DeWitt, KU’s chief financial officer told the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday. “This is more unprecedented than Covid, actually, because it keeps coming every week.”

Amidst the turmoil surrounding higher education as the Trump administration looks to cut the size of government and alter the role of universities, KU is proposing a 2.9% increase to the tuition and mandatory fees that it charges students for the next school year.

If approved — Regents aren’t scheduled to vote on the proposals from KU and other state universities until June — would add about $175 per semester for undergraduate, in-state students and nearly $450 for out-of-state undergraduate students.

But DeWitt told the Journal-World in a brief interview that the tuition proposal won’t be enough to balance KU’s budget. That means KU expects to either dip into reserve funds, make expense cuts or a combination of the two.

A memo to Regents indicated the tuition plan would leave about a $19 million funding gap for KU as it relates to its operations and various strategic initiatives. DeWitt, however, said he wasn’t ready to commit to any number, noting that changes to federal research funding that is being litigated in court could create a $20 million to $40 million budget problem for KU, among other issues.

That means uncertainty will continue to reign, and that includes uncertainty over how much — or whether — some university employees will receive a pay increase. The state legislature and governor’s office have provided about $4.5 million in funding to provide merit pay increases to employees on the Lawrence campus. In the past, KU has traditionally used that money — plus general KU funds — to provide an across-the-board pay increase to university employees.

However, DeWitt said it is not certain that KU will take that approach for the next year.

“We may or may not do across-the-board increases,” DeWitt said.

DeWitt said the university may choose to forgo across-the-board increases and instead focus on trying to bring specific positions up to market pay rates. DeWitt has estimated that KU needs to devote about $30 million per year to bring all of its various positions up to the average wages that are paid for similar positions in the region.

While a $30 million infusion is unlikely to materialize next year, DeWitt said KU may want to consider using the state money to address a portion of those market rate concerns.

“We cannot be noncompetitive,” DeWitt said of attracting employees. “We are looking at what we can do to stay competitive and continue our recruiting strategies.”

Staying competitive in recruiting new students was an overriding concern as KU leaders put forward a proposal for tuition. DeWitt told Regents that he expects KU’s enrollment next year to grow slightly, which would mean KU would again set a new record for enrollment. DeWitt didn’t provide an estimate on how much enrollment would grow, but indicated the growth rate would be less than the university has seen during the past couple of years.

He said several states are becoming extremely competitive in trying to attract students, which was a reason KU leaders wanted to hold the tuition and fee increase to a level close to the expected rate of inflation.

“You have places like Texas that are giving free tuition away to students we normally would recruit,” DeWitt said of the University of Texas System’s program to provide free tuition to state students whose families earn $100,000 or less.

KU’s proposed tuition and fee increase, by a percentage basis, was near the middle of the pack compared to the other state universities governed by the Regents. On a dollar basis, KU’s proposed increase is the second largest, and KU — the largest university in the state — continues to have the highest tuition among the state’s public universities.

Here’s a look at the proposed tuition and fee increases for the state universities for a typical undergraduate in-state student. All dollar amounts are per semester:

• KU: $6,317, up $175 or 2.9%

• Kansas State: $5,789, up $179 or 3.2%

• Wichita State: $4,973, up $131 or 2.7%

• Pittsburg State: $4,299, up $99 or 2.4%

• Emporia State: $3,607, up $30 or 0.8%

• Fort Hays State: $3,055, up $94 or 3.2%

Some KU students will see increases over-and-above the proposed baseline increases because some schools and departments at KU charge their own fees. KU’s architecture and design school is proposing the largest increase among any of the schools. The school is proposing a $50 per credit hour increase in its fees to increase faculty salaries and also to help put the school on track for a new facility.

KU’s School of Music also is proposing a $15 per credit hour increase in fees to help address maintenance needs, new technology and equipping new audio/video recording studios. KU’s education school also is proposing a $5 per credit hour increase to support student scholarships.

KU is proposing larger tuition and fee increases for graduate students. KU is proposing tuition and fees of $6,296 per semester for in-state graduate students, an increase of $281 or 4.7%. Proposed tuition and fees for out-of-state graduate students total $14,003, up $400, or 2.9%.

Regents on Wednesday largely did not comment or provide any direction on the proposed tuition and fee increases, but rather said they would have a full discussion on the proposals at their June board meeting.

In other news, the Board of Regents elected two new leaders to begin serving one year terms in July. Blake Benson, a Regent from Pittsburg who also serves as that community’s president of the chamber of commerce, won unanimous election as the Regents’ next chair. Diana Mendoza, director of ESOL & Diversity at Dodge City Public Schools, was unanimously elected to serve as the board’s vice chair.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Regents Chair Carl Ice, center, and Regents Vice-Chair Jon Rolph, left, will end their leadership terms on the board next month. Both are picture on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.