A tuition freeze is when the government restricts the ability for colleges to raise the tuition fees for students. A tuition freeze was put in place to help ease the burden of COVID-19 on UCA students.

It is now time for UCA’s administrators to make a decision on tuition costs and the existing tuition freeze.

Diane Newton, Vice President of UCA, said, “The President of the university and the Vice President for Finance and Administration work closely with the Budget Office on gathering information regarding university and departmental needs for the coming fiscal year,” Newton added, “other Vice Presidents and offices are included for their input and consideration,” when discussing how the decision to raise or lower tuition is approached.

The tuition freeze has been active for “the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2021” said Newton. But this is not the first time that UCA has been under a tuition freeze.

“There were freezes for Fiscal Year 19 and Fiscal Year 16 in recent history” said Newton. According to UCA’s website, “For the first time in more than 20 years, University of Central Arkansas students did not experience an increase in tuition and fees for the 2015-2016 academic year. In May 2015, the UCA Board of Trustees approved an operating budget for 2015-2016 that does not include an increase in undergraduate mandatory tuition and fees.”

However, that did not last long. Fiscal year 17 at UCA proposed a 4.25% increase in tuition, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2016.

When it came to how much the tuition would be raised, Newton said, “There has been no decision made at this time, but it would be a modest increase.”

The last time tuition was raised at UCA was for fiscal year 20 before COVID-19 happened.

According to UCA’s record of past costs of attendance, the tuition and fee rates for a full-time undergraduate living on campus for the 2018-19 school year were $8,754. In 2019-20 they were $9,188, a $434 difference.

For the 2020-21 school year only an increase in fees was decided on.

The decision to raise the cost of tuition is made by several members of UCA’s administrative staff including, “The President of the university, Vice President for Finance and Administration and others members of the cabinet.” Because the freeze ends late June of this year, a decision will have to be made soon. “The Board of Trustees will vote on tuition and fees increases at the board meeting in May” said Newton.