Hike puts SOU in the middle of the pack of Oregon public universities
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
Tuition for most students at Southern Oregon University will go up by 4.8% this fall, an increase unanimously approved by the university Board of Trustees at its spring meeting last Friday, April 19, at Hannon Library.
SOU administrators heavily emphasized the desire to keep the rise in tuition below 5%, as that represents the highest increase in the state. SOU President Rick Bailey said at the board meeting how the increase for incoming SOU students sits in comparison to other Oregon universities. As it stands, all seven public universities will increase tuition this fall by a rate ranging between 3% and 5%, with the majority of schools increasing more than 4.5%.
Oregon’s public universities will raise their rates by the following rates:
– University of Oregon: 3%
– Western Oregon University: 3.99%
– Eastern Oregon University: 4.7%
– Southern Oregon University: 4.8%
– Portland State University: 4.8%
– Oregon State University: 4.91%
– Oregon Tech: 5%
“Of the seven universities, what we’re presenting to you is somewhere in the middle,” Bailey said. “There are two schools who are going to be a little bit below us percentage wise and there’ll be four schools a little bit north of us in terms of what they’ll be asking their boards to do.”
Tuition will not rise this fall for the masters in education, Masters of Business Administration, and Masters of Science in Education programs, according to Josh Lovern, director of Budget and Planning at SOU.
“If you look at a program like our Masters in Education, we’re competing with schools like Grand Canyon University and others. We need to make sure we’re really doing a thorough market analysis to see where we’re at in some of those specific programs,” Bailey said.
Vice-chair Sheila Clough called the strategic pricing important to maintaining a competitive edge.
“The reality is, if we want to be a competitive university, we have to do this type of pricing,” Clough said.
Provost Casey Shillam, who joined the work of the Tuition Advisory Council during her first week on the job, said the group gathered input from students as part of the process in making decisions.
“I was very impressed with the thought that students and faculty and staff put into this decision,” she said. “It’s a very big decision to self-govern how students themselves are going to be making these kind of recommendations.”
To learn more about tuition and student fees at SOU, go to sou.edu/financial-aid/cost-of-attendance/tuition-fees/.
Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.
Related stories:
Oregon public universities ask state for more funding as students pay record tuition (April 30, 2023)
SOU students to see nearly 4% hike in tuition cost (April 28, 2022)
