Emphasizing increased funding for financial aid and other student programs, the Board of Trustees has voted to raise undergraduate tuition by 5.9 percent, or approximately $2,000, bringing the total tuition to $35,900 for the 2007-2008 year.
The decision came following the recommendations of the deans of the schools. Increases ranged from 3.5 percent ($20) for the Arts & Sciences part-time summer programs (calculated on a per hour basis) to nine percent ($4,536) for accelerated full-time nursing, but tended to be between five and six percent. Full-time Arts & Sciences and Engineering students will see a 5.9 percent increase, or roughly $2,000.
"Our tuition increase request is based upon a number of factors including financial aid considerations, a careful analysis of fixed operating and current program costs and essential new initiatives in the areas of academic, support and student life that do not have other funding sources," Dean of the Whiting School for Engineering Nicholas Jones said.
Some money from the increased tuition will go to the new Student Information System (ISIS) which will help students access personal information such as grades and financial services. Jones also noted that Hopkins is looking to enhance several of its services including health, counseling and security. In order to meet increasing student enrollment, Hopkins is hiring more expository writing lecturers, more teaching assistants and more engineering staff to assist in design-intensive courses.
"One of the complications here is that the cost of higher education rises more quickly than the cost of other goods and services, in part because it is so labor-intensive," Provost Steven Knapp said.
As a result, increasing costs may result in a further increasing tuition rates for the 2008-2009 academic year.
From 2002 to 2005 the Board of Trustees managed to keep the tuition increase under five percent. In 2006 the board voted to increase the tuition by 7.2 percent, bringing
it to its current 2006-2007 levels. According to finaid.org, the average yearly tuition increase among colleges is eight percent. In 2005, Brown increased their tuition by five percent to $33,888. The following year, Harvard saw a 4.75 percent increase to their current $33,709 tuition. That same year, Yale saw a five percent increase to about $33,000. This year, Duke announced a 5.5 percent increase from $30,720 to $32,409; however, they plan to offset the burden by increasing financial aid by 7.7 percent. Princeton has announced that they will not be increasing their tuition for the 2007-2008 year, although they will be increasing room and board costs by 4.2 percent, approximately $1,780.
"I suspect there will be an increase but I am not sure at this time -- without analysis -- what its magnitude will be," Jones cautioned.
The tuition increase can also be blamed on endowment investment profits, which fall behind those of most institutions. Although Hopkins' 2006 endowment of $2.2 billion made an 11.5 percent return last year, the endowment and its returns remain much lower than those of other universities. For example, Harvard's 2006 endowment made a 16.7 percent rate of return, Yale a 22.9 percent, and Princeton 19.5 percent rate, allowing them to keep tuition rates stable for the upcoming year.
At the same time, not everyone will be feeling the full weight of the increase. According to the Director of Student Financial Aid Ellen Frishberg, students can expect to see an increase in financial aid to help cover the tuition increase.
"I had assurances from the deans that there would be money brought to financial aid to offset the increase. There are times when we don't get everything we need, but we see ourselves as an advocate for students' basic needs," Frishberg said.
"When tuition rises, the cost of financial aid increases as well, and most of the funding for financial aid currently comes from tuition revenues. The deans are actively working on building up endowment to support financial aid for students who need it, so that less of it will depend on tuition," Knapp said.
In the end, Frishberg said students can expect financial aid to help alleviate a large portion of this tuition increase.
"I don't think anyone who's on financial aid needs to worry," she said.
Students expressed concerns over a lack of clarity in the University's investment and endowment profile.
"I would like to know where the money was going before I made any judgment, but $2,000 sounds a little extreme, especially considering the amount of money the school has gotten from benefactors in the last few years," senior Gerardo Serrano said.
Junior Alice Lee pointed out that she had seen several increases in tuition since she came to the University but noted that this definitely one was one of the larger.
"I'm really opposed to this increase and actually kind of intimidated," she said.
