UT System Regents approve tuition rates for health institutions
AUSTIN – The University of Texas System Board of Regents Wednesday unanimously approved increases to tuition at five of the System’s health institutions.
Even with the increases, tuition for UT System health profession programs remains among the most affordable in the nation compared with peer institutions. Rates were considered for medical and dental schools, as well as schools of biomedical sciences, public health, undergraduate and graduate nursing and biomedical informatics.
For fall 2014, average increases across schools include 3.9 percent for medicine, 3.7 percent for graduate nursing, 5.6 percent for dentistry and 2.1 percent for allied health.
Health institutions developed tuition proposals after receiving student input and submitted them to the UT System Office of Health Affairs and Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. for review. The UT Health Science Center at Tyler did not request tuition increases this year.
The Board of Regents also approved a new, innovative guaranteed four-year fixed tuition plan for the UT System’s two dental schools. The roughly 19 percent tuition increase would apply to dental students who enroll in fall 2015 at either UT Health Science Center at San Antonio or UT Health Science Center at Houston. These students will have tuition locked in during their four years of dental school.
Currently, these two dental schools are among the least expensive in the nation, and even with the proposed increase in 2015, they would remain well below the national average for tuition costs at public dental schools.
Regents also approved a tuition increase in fall 2015 for the biomedical sciences program at UT Health Science Center at Houston. Faculty research grants cover tuition for virtually all of the students in this program, and new grant applications will include these increased costs, thereby minimizing any direct costs to students.
About The University of Texas System
Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking research and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States, with nine academic universities, six health institutions and a fall 2013 enrollment of more than 213,000. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public universities in Texas. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $14.6 billion (FY 2014) including $3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. With about 90,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.
