University of Minnesota students worry tuition spike will increase loan burden

Some University of Minnesota students fear the steep tuition spikes approved Thursday will worsen student loan debt.

Despite some students’ concerns that the hikes will price out their peers from being able to afford the U, the Board of Regents approved the $5.1 billion budget in a 9-3 vote. The budget raises tuition by 6.5% for undergraduate, in-state students attending the Twin Cities campus, the biggest price increase in 14 years. Out-of-state undergraduates there will see tuition jump 7.5%.

“Personally, I’m not a fan of that, if it’s going to be more money,” said Mark Kaczmarczyk, a rising junior from Duluth, adding that the decision to raise tuition was disappointing because part of the appeal of going to an in-state school was keeping costs low.

In 2024, 51% of undergraduates who entered as first-year students graduated with debt, with the average loan amount at $29,615, a U spokesperson said.

In 2023, about half of U graduates who earned bachelor’s degrees had student loan debt. That’s down from two-thirds of graduates a decade earlier, according to data from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. The median debt that year was about $22,000, down a few thousand dollars from a decade earlier.

U President Rebecca Cunningham told the Board of Regents on Thursday that students in need won’t see a net price hike despite the tuition increases thanks to U scholarships and the North Star Promise. That program was created by the Legislature in 2023 to provide free tuition and fees at public colleges in Minnesota for residents from families making less than $80,000 a year.

“Our least-resourced students will not see this tuition increase in their tuition bill,” she said. “The sticker price here is going up, but everyone is not going to feel that the same.”

The new budget also cuts academic programs by 7%, which some faculty opposed, saying it will lead to fewer instructors and comes amid rising “administrative bloat.” But leaders countered that the reductions and tuition increases were needed due to flat funding from the state, high inflation and declining federal support for research.

“These are difficult but necessary decisions the board is being asked to make in a year of limited resources while investing in our future and staying true to our values,” Cunningham said.

The Twin Cities campus’ tuition hike will bring costs to $16,132 a year for undergraduate Minnesotans. Room and board, plus fees, will go up by 6.8%.

Sophie Wright of Edina just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental geoscience. She said she would still choose the U today, but she’s concerned about the school’s budget.

“It’s frustrating, definitely, especially because they’re not improving from what I’ve seen, just, there’s no real reason,” she said.

Wright said she took out about $17,000 to pay for her education, which she said is manageable compared to her friends, some of whom owe around $60,000.

“Everything else, I either paid out of pocket, or I was able to get a lot of scholarships, just based off of merit,” she said.

The U’s Rochester campus will also see tuition go up by 6.5% for undergraduate, in-state students while tuition will increase by 4% at the Duluth and Crookston campuses and by 5% at the Morris campus. Tuition costs for nonresidents at those campuses will range from $12,116 at Crookston to $19,224 at Duluth.

Regent Bo Thao-Urabe said at Thursday’s meeting that the tuition jump will impact families who are already stretched thin.

“My biggest concern about this is that it will have acute impact on the students that we feel like need the most help — the first-generation students, low-income students ... but also students of color, which I feel like are the very students that we’ve committed to making sure have access and can be served by this university," Thao-Urabe said.

Cunningham responded by referring to the North Star Promise program and said students from households making $80,000 to $110,000 a year also receive scholarships.

“We provide some of the best financial aid and scholarships across the state of Minnesota, which has made us, in this past year, the most affordable four-year option for students under $110,000 in the state,” Cunningham said, using numbers for the average amount paid after financial aid is included.

“I anticipate,” she added, “given everyone else is facing increased tuition across our other universities in the state and region, that we will remain, even with this tuition increase, the most affordable.”

Yuqing Liu, Sean Baker and Christa Lawler of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.