The UMass Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved its second consecutive tuition and fee freeze for in-state undergraduate students.
Trustees, meeting on the Dartmouth campus, unanimously froze tuition and fees for 2014-15, – thanks to an expected influx of state funds for the five-campus system.
At the flagship UMass Amherst campus, tuition and fees would stay at $13,258 for in-state undergraduates. With room and board, the number is $24,215. At UMass Boston, tuition and fees will stay at $11,966, while at the Dartmouth campus, the figure will remain at $11,681. At the Lowell campus, the tuition and fees will remain at $12,447.
According to UMass, the House and Senate versions of the budget fund the UMass system at just under $519 million. The university system’s board also voted to give UMass President Robert Caret “emergency authority” to raise fees on in-state undergraduates by up to 3.5 percent if the state budget does not end up maintaining the funding level.
“Freezing tuition and fees in consecutive years represents a real savings for students and their families, and also makes a strong statement about our commitment to affordability and the seriousness with which we take our public mission,” Robert Caret, president of the UMass system, said in a statement.
In a release on the freeze, university officials noted that tuition and room and board charges continue to rise at some private colleges and universities in the Boston area.
