Tuition Deregulation –
Giving away the future of Texas
“If you wanted a benchmark, the best I could do is to say that the tuition at UT-Austin is 27 percent lower than the tuition at comparable universities around the country. They have roughly the same cost structures we do, and we charge 27 percent less tuition.”
-Mark Yudof, UT System Chancellor[1]
Fact: The US News and World Report ranks UT-Austin 15th in top-ranked public universities[2], but it is the 5th most expensive of the same 15.
The University of Texas System is proposing a shift in power away from legislators and towards the Board of Regents. Tuition deregulation would remove the decision to increase tuition from elected legislators and place it in the hands of appointed regents. At a time of state budget crisis, this move may be tempting to some, but it threatens to put an end to affordable education in Texas.
What is tuition deregulation?
Definition - Tuition deregulation would take the power to set tuition from the Texas Legislature and giving it to the UT-System Board of Regents.
Why should tuition deregulation be opposed?
· It will drastically increase tuition rates
· It will create a two-tiered university system
· It will reduce accountability of the University System to the Legislature and the voters
There is no doubt that the regents would increase tuition, the only questions is how much? Currently, the Regents have the authority to implement fees (e.g. Union Fee, Students Services Fee). Using fees, the University has been able to skirt the Texas Legislature’s tuition caps. As a consequence, fees have risen at a much greater rate than tuition.
In 1970, total fees were $54 per semester[3]
In 1987 they were $195 per semester
In 2002 they were over $1150 per semester
Deregulation will increase tuition and fee rates
· Higher tuition and fees reduce accessibility to higher education
· This will disproportionately affect minority students
· It will also reduce UT’s competitive edge, statewide and nationally
As tuition and fee rates increase, fewer low-income and middle class students are able to afford higher education. With debt burdens of college graduates at record levels, more and more students can no longer start, much less finish, an undergraduate degree. Because college graduates earn more and pay more in taxes, this certainly impacts the state’s economy and general welfare negatively.
Blacks and Hispanics make up over 43% of Texas’ population, according to the 2000 census, but they are still not being educated at the same levels as whites. Increasing tuition would negatively impact non-wealthy Blacks and Hispanics seeking college educations. In Texas, non-Hispanic white men are nearly four times as likely as Hispanic men, and over twice as likely as Black men to have a college degree. Non-Hispanic white women are three times as likely as Hispanic women and over one-and-a-half times as likely as Black women to have a college degree in Texas.
UT System schools are no longer as affordable as they once were. While UT is mandated to provide a first rate education to students whether rich or poor, further increases in tuition rates, beyond the costs of inflation, would threaten this mandate. It would also make less highly accredited schools more tempting to Texas students, because affordability is a key components of UT’s competitiveness.
It will create a two-tiered university system
Already, students at UT Austin are more likely to be well-off than students at UT Pan-Am. If the Regents gain power to set different tuition rates at different schools, this trend will be exacerbated, creating a flagship university for the wealthy, and a number of subsidiary schools for everyone else. Tuition deregulation did just this in Britain and Ottawa, Canada.
It will reduce accountability of the University to the Legislature and therefore the voters.
If the University gains the ability to set tuition rates internally, it will feel less compelled to comply with accountability measures and other requests from the Texas State Legislature. As tuition and fees become a larger part of the UT System’s operating budget and state funds become a smaller part, the Legislature, and therefore the voters, will have less say in how the state university spends its money. Defined by all as a public good, a public university should also be accountable to the citizenry that is both subsidizing it and benefiting from it. Texas' elected officials have the power to ensure that UT remains accountable to Texas voters.
What about the UT System’s “Texas Compact” proposal?
The “Texas Compact” is largely a repackaging of existing grants. Even according to UT officials it has nothing to do with tuition deregulation. While the guarantee of free tuition and fees to students is a good thing, it has been offered as “absolutely contingent” upon tuition deregulation. But the funds to pay for the Compact won’t come, in any substantial way, from tuition money – so there’s little connection between the two. Furthermore, unlike the Texas Grant program, the Texas Compact requires students to be enrolled full-time to be eligible. This jeopardizes the ability of working and non-traditional students to maintain financial solvency in light of new tuition increases.
How do students feel about tuition deregulation?
UT-Austin’s Student government has condemned tuition deregulation. UT Dallas and Texas A&M student governments have likewise voted in opposition to tuition deregulation. A number of student organizations have also announced their opposition to tuition deregulation.
What can legislators do?
Don't give away Texas' future. Please vote no on any bill which would deregulate tuition in the state of Texas.
For more information please contact: Molly Rogers at (512) 217-0413 or
[1] Austin American Statesman. Friday, February 14, 2003
[2]2 US News and World Report, America’s Best Colleges 2003
[3]3 These data come from "A 33-year Trend in Tuition and Fees: The Cost of Attending the University of Texas at Austin." Figures are for an in-state undergraduate student taking 15 semester hours. For a copy please email Molly Rogers at