UAF proposes tuition change to separate community college rates from the main campus

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is proposing a new tuition model that will help their rates be more competitive and streamlined.

Currently, the university splits its tuition in three ways: the lower-division undergraduate rate, the upper-division undergraduate rate, and the graduate rate.

The university is proposing changing the names of the rate categories to a Community and Technical College (CTC) and Rural Campus Rate, a Troth Yeddha Undergraduate Rate, and a Troth Yeddha Graduate Rate.

For students attending CTC, community college, or attending a school on a rural campus, their rates will remain the same at $234 per credit hour.

For the lower-division undergraduate students attending the main UAF Troth Yeddha campus, tuition will increase from $234 to $289 per credit hour over the next two years.

Upper-division graduate students’ tuition will remain the same at its current rate of $289.

There will be no change to graduate tuition or non-resident surcharges.

Included in the proposal is the expansion of UAF’s Nanook Pledge, a merit-based 4-year scholarship program, and the Nanook Commitment, a need-based 4-year scholarship program.

This expansion will allow UAF to offer more aid to more students, and more aid per student.

The Fairbanks University says there are two reasons they are proposing these changes.

Firstly, “To separate the community college tuition rates from the baccalaureate and graduate rates,” Marmian Grimes, UAF’s Public Information Officer wrote in an email. “This will help us be more competitive in the community college market.”

Secondly, Grimes explained that this would also simplify tuition for baccalaureate students and make it more predictable. She said most schools don’t have two different tuition rates for undergraduate students.

UAF Chancellor, Dan White said separating the community and rural college tuition from the Troth Yedda University campus tuition will help the school fall in line with the average national rates for comparable institutions.

“UAF is less expensive than its peers, but if we look at the community technical college part of UAF, that tuition is higher than its peers,” White explained. “That’s a problem we have been trying to solve for a long time, and this decoupling of tuition would allow us to do that.”

White said they aren’t able to manage the community college tuition and the Troth Yeddah campus tuition separately at this time.

“Our hope is that we decouple these and we can start to manage CTC’s tuition to get it in line with its peers,” White added.

The Board of Regents will discuss and vote on the issue during their meeting on November 11th, 2021.

Public Testimony Information:

To give public testimony, call 1-866-831-8713 Monday, November 1st, from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

You will need to provide your first and last name to the operator; your call will be placed in a queue and monitored. When it is your turn to speak, the operator will notify you and transfer the call into the audio conference.

Upon transfer, introduce yourself: “Mr./Madam Chair and members of the Board of Regents, my name is (your name), calling from (city),” then begin your testimony.

Comments are limited to two minutes per individual or as determined by the chair.

Live stream at: https://www.alaska.edu/bor/live/

Written testimony is accepted at any time and is shared with the board and the president. Please submit to: ua-bor@alaska.edu.

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