The University of Minnesota is proposing another two-year system wide tuition freeze -- this time for all levels of formal education.
Its biennial budget request to lawmakers would extend the current freeze for resident undergraduates but would also halt any tuition increases for resident graduate and professional students.
U of M needs more than $65 million from the Legislature to avoid tuition hikes of 3 percent for undergraduates and 3.5 percent for graduates, university President Eric Kaler said, adding that he's optimistic that lawmakers will agree to it.
"People understand very clearly that freezing tuition drives accessibility and affordability for middle-class Minnesota families," he said.
The university is in the second year of its current two-year tuition freeze. In a deal with Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature, Kaler got the state to fund it at a cost of $42 million -- a move that has won him applause in an era of rising college costs.
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The university estimates the freeze would save incoming freshmen between $2,130 and $2,570 over four years, depending on the campus.
Tuition at the Twin Cities campus is just over $12,000 a year.
This summer, university regents also approved a tuition freeze for graduate and professional students in the medical and veterinary schools.
Under the new freeze, a typical graduate student would save $1,600 over a two-year master's degree, U of M officials say. A typical medical student would save about $5,000 over a four-year program.
