Tuition to Rise for Most Students in A&M System

All students in the Texas A&M University System will pay more in tuition, except for those at the flagship College Station campus and the San Antonio campus, the system’s regents decided in a vote today.

The Board of Regents today in a 6-3 vote approved all proposed tuition increases from the system’s nine universities. The vote comes a day after the University of Texas System regents approved tuition increases for most campuses.

R. Bowen Loftin, president of Texas A&M University at College Station, did not request a tuition increase, even though the school’s tuition and fee advisory council had proposed a nearly 4 percent hike.

Though the university’s tuition isn't rising, some fees will go up. For example, the application fee for undergraduates will rise to $75 from $60. Texas A&M-San Antonio students will also pay higher fees.

The A&M regents’ vote on tuition comes as state funding for higher education is being squeezed. The Legislature cut higher education funding for public universities and colleges by more than 9 percent in the last legislative session. In a news release, state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, blamed the tuition increases on those cuts.

"Universities already made their own budget cuts in response to the loss of state funding,” Villarreal said. “Unfortunately, the Legislature pushed them into a corner where raising tuition was the only way out.”