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Undergrad tuition to rise again at all Oregon's public universities, up nearly 30% from a decade ago
Undergrad tuition to rise again at all Oregon's public universities, up nearly 30% from a decade ago

Yahoo

time28-04-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Undergrad tuition to rise again at all Oregon's public universities, up nearly 30% from a decade ago

Graduates celebrate at Oregon State University-Cascades in Bend on June 18, 2024. Tuition at the state's largest public university will rise more than 5% for freshman next year. (Photo courtesy of Oregon State University) The average inflation-adjusted cost of undergraduate tuition for Oregon residents at the state's seven public universities next year will be nearly 30% higher than it was a decade ago, following increases being considered or adopted by every university board for the next school year. The state's seven public universities — Eastern Oregon University, Oregon State University, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland State University, Southern Oregon University, University of Oregon and Western Oregon University — are all slated to raise tuition by 3% to 5% for the 2025-26 school year. This comes on top of increases at every university, every year, for the last decade. Any resident tuition increases above 5%, including mandatory fees such as student health fees, require that the universities' boards get approval from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. The commission's executive director, Ben Cannon, said in an email the commission doesn't expect tuition increase proposals over 5% based on information it received from the universities. 'However, even smaller increases compound onto years of steady increases in college costs in Oregon, and we continue to be very concerned about financially struggling students and families being priced out of a postsecondary education,' Cannon said. The increases are driven by labor costs and inflation that's touched everything from teaching materials to utility costs and insurance, according to university spokespersons. Cannon added that insufficient levels of state investment are also driving up the costs of enrollment. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is recommending a 6.4% increase in higher education funding for the next two years, including an additional $25 million increase for Oregon Opportunity Grants, the state's needs-based financial aid program, Cannon said. Oregon ranks 32nd among states for public investment in higher education, according to the Colorado-based policy group State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. At every Oregon university, student tuition and fees make up more than half of revenue, one of the highest proportions in the nation, according to a 2022 report commissioned by lawmakers from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonprofit think tank in Colorado. About 25 years ago, public funding accounted for up to 75% of the cost of each full-time employee at an Oregon university. Now, it pays for about 50% or less, researchers found. Oregon's per-pupil funding for full-time college students was found to be about $3,000 less than what California and Washington provide per student. The Board of Trustees at Oregon's largest public university by enrollment approved a 5.3% tuition increase for new resident and nonresident undergrads and a 4.8% tuition hike for returning undergrads. This won't require review by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission because, when taken with student fees, the complete increase in sticker price won't exceed 5%. Tuition will increase nearly 5% for students newly enrolled in Oregon State's online degree programs. Students will also pay higher fees for psychological and student health services at OSU's Corvallis and Bend campuses. About 50% of Oregon State University students are from out of state, and they pay nearly three times as much for tuition as Oregon residents. Resident undergraduates attending full-time in Corvallis will pay more than $15,000 and students in Bend will pay about $14,300. Out-of-state undergraduates will pay about $40,000 for the 2025-26 school year. The University of Oregon Trustees voted to approve a 3.75% tuition increase for resident freshmen enrolled in the fall of 2025 and a 3.25% increase for nonresident freshmen. Tuition at the university in Eugene is locked in for five years for each incoming class of freshman, so that students pay the same tuition for the first five years. Students enrolling full time in the fall of 2025 will pay $16,754 in tuition and fees. That's up from about $16,100 that freshmen who enrolled last year paid. Nonresident students enrolling at the University of Oregon in the fall will pay more than $43,000 per year for their degrees, without accounting for other fees. About half of all students at the University of Oregon are from out of state. Resident, nonresident, undergraduate and graduate students at Portland State University this fall will see all tuition rise by about 5%. That means a full-time resident undergrad at Portland State University will pay about $12,300 per year in tuition and fees, an increase of more than $2,700 in the last six years, or about 29%. Oregon Tech's Tuition Recommendation Committee proposed a 4% tuition increase for 2025 if the Legislature approves Kotek's full request for higher education spending. If the Legislature approves less funding than Kotek recommended, the committee will adopt a 4.5% tuition increase, Ashley VanEssen, a university spokesperson, said in an email. A 4% increase would raise tuition, not including fees, by about $500 each year for students at the university, with campuses Klamath Falls and Portland. Southern Oregon University in Ashland approved a tuition hike that hits just below the state's threshold for review. The university's board greenlit a tuition and enrollment fee increase of 4.99% for resident and nonresident undergrads. That means that in-state full-time students will pay more than $11,500 a year in tuition and fees in 2025, and nonresident students will pay more than $31,500 per year. Resident undergrads at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, about 16 miles west of Salem, will pay nearly 4.7% more for tuition in 2025 than 2024, and nonresident undergrads will pay about 1.6% more than they did last year. Health services fees and business fees will also rise. Western offers the state's second lowest price point for undergraduate tuition at about $11,500 per year in tuition and fees. The approved increases will bring tuition up about $470 per year. Students enrolled at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande will see a tuition hike in the next school year, though it won't exceed 5%, according to Tim Seydel, a university spokesperson. The school's Tuition Advisory Committee has not settled on a number but will recommend that the Board of Trustees vote on 2025-26 tuition at their May meeting, Seydel said in an email. The school currently offers the lowest undergraduate tuition of any Oregon public university, about $11,000 for tuition and fees per year for Oregon residents enrolled full time. 'We want to keep increases low and reasonable and are hopeful that the Oregon Legislature will invest in the state's public universities to help mitigate rising costs,' Seydel said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

U.S. Department of Education reinstates income-driven student loan repayment plans
U.S. Department of Education reinstates income-driven student loan repayment plans

Yahoo

time27-03-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

U.S. Department of Education reinstates income-driven student loan repayment plans

Oregon State University-Cascades students attend a graduation ceremony on June 17, 2018 in Bend. The U.S. Department of Education reopened applications for income-driven student loan repayment and consolidation a month after abruptly pulling the applications from its federal student aid site. (Photo courtesy of Rob Kerr/OSU-Cascades) One month after officials at the U.S. Department of Education abruptly stopped accepting new applications for income-driven student loan repayment plans; they've changed course. As of Wednesday, the agency's student aid website once again allows federal student loan borrowers to submit online applications for income-driven loan repayment and loan consolidation. Such applications are needed to participate in several loan repayment and forgiveness plans that millions of Americans have used to manage repayment for nearly two decades. Department officials said in a news release that they stopped accepting and processing applications for a month so that they could 'substantially' revise the income-driven loan repayment application. They say the application needed changes following a temporary pause on one repayment plan — the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE plan — that has been on hold since Republican attorneys general sued in 2024. Oregon's Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and Vermont's independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders attributed the U.S. Department of Education's reinstatement of the repayment plans to pressure from student borrowers from Oregon and around the country and to a public letter they issued to department director Linda McMahon in early March. In that letter, the senators demanded to know why the agency abruptly pulled applications for income-driven loan repayment and loan consolidation from its site, 'without warning, without Congressional notification, and without clear guidance for borrowers on what they should do next or expect in the future.' Wyden in an email called the agency's change in course an 'uncommon victory for common sense.' 'This big win does not end the struggle for justice, and I'll keep watchdogging the Trump administration to ensure it follows through with this commitment we battled to secure,' he said. Plans that were affected by the stoppage include the Pay As You Earn, or PAYE, program and the Income-Contingent and Income-Based repayment plans. Each of these plans limits monthly repayments to a specific percentage of a borrower's discretionary income, and each sets out a term of repayment that ends with loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years of regular repayment. It also impacted the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, available to borrowers who work for government or nonprofit organizations and do public service work. Eligibility for the program, which forgives loans remaining after the borrower has made 120 qualifying payments, starts by applying for income-driven loan repayment and loan consolidation. More than 12 million student loan borrowers rely on all of these plans, according to U.S. Department of Education data, and more than 1 million borrowers had applied for income-driven repayment plans that were still processing as of the Feb. 24 application take down, according to Wyden spokesperson Hank Stern. The SAVE plan, at issue in litigation brought by Republican attorneys general and frozen since June 2024, made it easier for low-income borrowers to meet monthly repayment terms, requiring they pay nothing if their annual income is $30,000 or less. It also limited the amount of interest that could be collected on loans and forgave loans after 10 to 20 years based on their size. The Republican attorneys general ordered this was beyond the authority of the education agency. The first income-driven repayment programs were passed by Congress in 2007 and signed by former U.S. President George W. Bush, a Republican. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

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