Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2004

Contact: Michael Cinelli
713/743-8155 (office)
281/267-7108 (pager)
macinelli@central.uh.edu

HOUSTON, April 1, 2004 – A $10 per credit hour increase in designated tuition for fall classes will help the University of Houston address the needs of its growing student population through new programs, additional courses and class sections, as well as with the recruitment and retention of world-class faculty.

The $10 increase, raising designated tuition to $75 per credit hour for the fall semester, was approved today by the UH System Board of Regents. The Regents’ action followed a series of meetings seeking input on the issue from students, faculty and administrators during the past few months.

Total tuition for the fall semester will be $123 per credit hour.

Exemptions to the $10 per credit hour increase will be offered to students working toward a teaching certificate and students in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) who enroll in core course classes that meet on Saturday.

The teaching certificate exemption is aimed at encouraging students to enter the profession in order to address teacher shortages in Texas. The exemption for CLASS students taking Saturday courses – a test program – is designed to make greater use of university facilities during off-peak hours. If successful, this program could be expanded to other areas in the core curriculum.

In addition to the designated tuition increase at UH, System regents approved increases of $6 per credit hour at UH-Clear Lake and $12 per credit hour at UH-Downtown. Designated tuition will not increase at UH-Victoria. Designated tuition for the fall semester at UH-Clear Lake will be $63, bringing total tuition per credit hour to $111. UH-Downtown students will pay $106 per credit hour in the fall with $58 of that figure being designated tuition.

“Students consider price, location and the availability of courses as they look at colleges and universities,” said Jay Gogue, UH System chancellor and UH president. “Most of our students live and work in the Houston and Victoria areas. Coupled with the convenience of attending our schools are the expectations that we will provide the programs, courses and class sections they want, along with the appropriate levels of student, academic and administrative support to preserve the value of their degrees.”

A major challenge facing UH administrators is the increasing number of students. Last fall, a record 35,066 students took classes. Applications for the fall 2004 semester are already 1,200 ahead of last year’s number at this time in the process.

“We expect to see this trend continue for the foreseeable future, especially as Texas pursues the Closing the Gaps initiative to increase enrollment in state colleges and universities by 500,000 within the next 12 years,” Gogue said.

The designated tuition increase for UH comes to $18.3 million. It will be appropriated in the following manner:

• 72 percent for faculty and staff recruitment and retention;
• 24 percent for student financial assistance; and
• 4 percent for student, academic and administrative support.

In addition to the general designated tuition increases, UH and UH-Clear Lake will institute differentiated designated tuition for professional schools and graduate students. These increases will vary at UH. At UH-Clear Lake, graduate students will pay $66 per semester credit hour and undergraduates $63.

The UH Differentiated Tuition applies to the professional colleges of architecture, business, engineering, hotel and restaurant management, optometry, pharmacy and social work. The tuition will range from $61.68 per semester credit hour for graduate students in the C.T. Bauer College of Business to $11.40 per semester credit hour in the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

“This differentiated tuition plan will allow UH to add a proposed 40 full-time equivalent employees in the categories of adjunct, clinical and tenure/tenure track faculty and academic support staff,” Gogue said. “Today, for instance, the student-to-faculty ratio in the Bauer College of Business is 100-to-1, which the college must reduce during the next two years in preparation for its accreditation review.”

About the University of Houston System

The University of Houston System is the state’s only metropolitan higher education system, encompassing four universities and two multi-institution teaching centers. The universities are the University of Houston, a nationally recognized doctoral degree-granting, comprehensive research university; the University of Houston-Downtown, a four-year undergraduate university beginning limited expansion into graduate programs; and the University of Houston-Clear Lake and the University of Houston-Victoria, both upper division and master’s-level institutions. The centers are the UH System at Sugar Land in Fort Bend and the UH System at Cinco Ranch. In addition, the UH System includes KUHF-FM, Houston’s National Public Radio and classical radio station, and KUHT-TV, the nation’s first educational television station.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.