Tuition increases will occur for next three years

Tuition increases will take place over the next three years at UCC, eventually reaching an increase at $120 by fall 2024. This means all students will pay $120 per credit in addition to their pre-existing fees. Currently, tuition is $104.

Although the current plans for tuition will increase to $120 by the 2024-25 school year, costs will not increase all at once. Starting next school year, 2022-23, the tuition will increase to $109, which is a 4.8 percent increase. 

Comparatively, UCC prides itself on keeping the percent increase below the current national inflation rate of 8.5 percent. See Figure 1 for comparisons between years.

Full-time students have the opportunity to lock their tuition rate starting next year. Students must be enrolled full-time to receive the $109 tuition per credit for the next three years. 

However, 70 percent of the student population attend part-time, meaning they do not have the option to lock their tuition per credit. According to UCC President Rachel Pokrandt, the reason for this decision revolves around students being more likely to graduate and succeed if they are full-time. “We encourage students to enroll full time.”

With most students being part-time, UCC foundation scholarships will have more opportunities. “Our foundation is going to raise funds to specifically raise scholarships for part-time students,” Pokrandt said.

As tuition increases, all students will have the opportunity to earn more through federal and state grants as many are increasing their dollar amount for the 2022-23 school year: The Oregon Promise Grant will increase from $1000 to $2000; the Opportunity Grant will increase from $2778 to $3600; and the Pell Grant will increase by $400.

UCC also hopes to reduce the cost of textbooks to zero, other than for courses with state-required textbooks. “Our goal is to be almost textbook-free,” Pokrandt said. “The average cost for textbooks per year for a full-time student is $1,500.” 

Pokrandt worked with tuition increases in the past, and she said that schools often need to work with their budgets and maintain or even improve the quality of the professors. “Price isn’t an issue as long as you provide value,” she said. 

UCC has one of the lowest-priced tuition-per-credit costs in the state. See Figure 2 for more information.

Pokrandt said the student tuition only pays for a portion of the entire operating budget for the college. The rest of the budget comes from state tax revenue and funds from the community.

“I am proud that inflation is 8.5 percent, but we are only raising tuition half of that,” Pokrandt said. 

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