Citing inflation, Utah governor indicates tuition freeze is coming

SALT LAKE CITY — It looks like a college tuition freeze will pass after Gov. Spencer Cox announced it in his budget meeting Friday.

During the meeting, Gov. Cox said that the costs for tuition and fees are out-pacing inflation.

Utah Higher Education Commissioner Dave Woolstenhulme told KSL NewsRadio that the freeze “would put a freeze on any increase to tuition for the upcoming school year.”

And, Woolstenhulme said the freeze is good news for those who’ve been contemplating a college education.

“I would just encourage anyone that’s interested or has a desire to go back to school, reach out, reach out to your local institution because there’s a lot of possibilities out there for them.”

Tuition freeze will put a strain on higher education

Universities will need to look at their finances and see where they can save in order to pay employees enough to combat inflation while keeping costs low for students.

“The state board is really tuned in to ‘what do we need to do to keep our tuition as low as possible?’ But on the same hand, we want to make sure we have a very high-quality institution,” Woolstenhulme said.

He also said that schools will have to do some re-vamping internally to help mitigate costs. That way the tuition freeze doesn’t cause bigger increases in future years.

“So that’s one of the things institutions will have to look at, is how they can do some internal savings — at the institutions. Or what that might look like working with the Legislature to see if they can fund more of that.”

But Woolstenhulme said the Utah System of Higher Education is actively working to make sure the freeze won’t make future fees higher than normal.

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