Western’s Board of Governors acted last week to authorize a 4% increase in tuition and mandatory fees, which represents a roughly $10-per-credit hour amount for an in-state undergraduate student, up from $264.32 for the 2021-22 academic year. This leaves the estimated cost of attendance, for a full-time student taking 30 credit hours per year subject to a little more than $8,000 in overall cost. The tuition is an essential revenue component of an $80 million budget, and such increases are a norm in the higher education industry even in years where inflation is not such a marked challenge. The tuition change is combined with a 5.4% increase in state funding as authorized by the Missouri Legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Parson.
