UM Board of Curators approves 2023-24 tuition rates with new structure
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved a new tuition structure that will include set rates for undergraduates taking a full course load on the Columbia campus.
The new rates are designed to lessen the amount of money students and families need to put toward tuition by offering a fixed rate depending on what school and field of study they are in, the UM System said in a news release.
The new tuition system is meant to shorten the amount of time students need to graduate, improve completion rates and increase predictability of costs, according to the release.
The University of Missouri-Columbia and Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla will have flat rates for undergraduate students taking 12-18 credit hours. The point of the flat rate is to push students to take an average of 15 credit hours a semester.
"An engineering major might be interested in a music course or an english class or something like that," Christian Basi, a spokesman for the UM System said."Maybe they wouldn't have taken that in the past because that was three additional credit hours they had to pay for."
The plateau rates for the University of Missouri are as follows:
| Tier | Resident | Non-Resident |
| Tier 1 | $6,500 | $16,600 |
| Tier 2 | $7,400 | $17,500 |
| Tier 3 | $8,300 | $18,400 |
The plateau rates for Missouri University of Science & Technology are as follows:
| Tiers | Resident | Non-Resident |
| Freshman Rate | $6,500 | $15,200 |
| Tier 1 | $6,500 | $15,200 |
| Tier 2 | $7,500 | $16,200 |
| Tier 3 | $8,500 | $17,200 |
According to Basi, the plateau system will not be used at UMKC or UMSL due to many students being part-time.
Rather, they will still be charged per credit hour at the tiered rate set by the system.
The tier system classifies certain fields of study into groups depending on how much it costs the universities to actually teach the classes. Things like resources, materials and equipment are considered when fields of study were put into tiers.
Another reason the UM System cites for moving to the price plateau model is to give students an opportunity to explore other fields of study that may have been too costly before.
In the past, prices of tuition and the associated fees often fluctuated semester by semester and type of class. Under the new system, students will pay a particular rate based on their course of study.
The curators approved the new tuition structure last year but set the rates Thursday.
"Previously, the universities had a standard credit-hour rate with 64 separate course fees that were added based upon the type of course that was chosen," according to the UM System release.
"It created a lot of confusion and was very difficult to predict what tuition would be," Basi said. "It was always based on the type of class that you were taking and not your major."
To calculate the new plateau rates at the University of Missouri- Columbia, click here.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
