Rutgers University’s tuition and fees will increase by 4% for the 2024-25 school year under a $5.6 billion budget approved by the school’s governing board Monday.
The tuition hike at the state’s largest public university is lower than last year’s 6% increase.
The typical full-time arts and sciences undergraduate from New Jersey will pay an average of $14,222 in tuition on the New Brunswick campus, a $548 increase. Mandatory fees will also increase by about $126 per year, depending on the student’s program.
That means the average in-state Rutgers undergraduate will pay about $17,520 per year in tuition and fees on the New Brunswick campus. Once room and board are added in, the total cost to attend Rutgers will be about $33,234 a year.
The tuition and fee increase is higher than the rate of inflation, which is currently about 3.3%
“This budget is prudently planned to allow us to meet rising costs while continuing to do what Rutgers does best: provide our students with exceptional academic, research and public service opportunities as they pursue their education and become engaged citizens,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said in a statement.
Rutgers officials attributed the higher bills to inflation, salary increases, and rising healthcare premiums and pension contributions, said David Moore, the university’s chief budget officer.
Dining services saw a much steeper increase, rising 8% at the New Brunswick and Newark campuses, and 11% for the Camden campus. The steeper hikes in Camden came after two years there without increases, Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin said.
“The continued inflationary pressures on food costs and labor increases,” she said, “required that dining rates across all of Rutgers campuses be adjusted this year to meet current and projected costs.”
Three-quarters of Rutgers students received some form of financial aid, Moore said. Several programs — including the Scarlet Guarantee in New Brunswick, Ru-n to the Top at Rutgers-Newark, and Bridging the Gap at Rutgers-Camden — help dramatically reduce costs for students.
In those programs, students in families with adjusted gross incomes of less than $65,000 pay no tuition or fees out of pocket, and those making between $80,000 and $100,000 pay no more than $5,000 in tuition and fees per semester.
Rutgers’ new budget carries a $41.3 million deficit, just over half of last year’s $77.3 million deficit, Moore said.
Rutgers’ tuition hikes came after several state legislators introduced bills to cap tuition increases at the state’s public universities.
A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Cody Miller, D-Gloucester, would limit tuition increases to 2% annually.
”We made investing in higher education a priority in this year’s state budget, which should have helped to offset the need for major tuition increases,” he said. “At a time when students are struggling and families are paying more for their basic needs, Rutgers needs to consider those factors when raising tuition.”
A 4% increase in tuition and fees on top of last year’s 6% increase “is a tough pill to swallow for students,” he added.
Stories by Tina Kelley
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Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.