Dive Brief:
- Oregon State University’s governing board on Friday approved tuition hikes of about 5.8% for returning undergraduate students, 6.3% for new undergrads and 5% for graduate students.
- The tuition increases, proposed by Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy, comes as the university is facing a $14 million budget gap by year's end. Trustees approved the proposal in a 12-2 vote that Oregon Public Broadcasting described as “contentious.”
- The hikes, set to take effect in fiscal 2027, are meant to "maximize general and flexible resources," Murthy's proposal to Oregon State's board said. The hikes are expected to raise an additional $32.3 million in revenue for the university.
Dive Insight:
Oregon State officials project $1 billion in expenses for fiscal 2026, far outpacing the expected $986 million in revenue, according to a financial presentation for the university’s board.
The university’s tuition in the 2023-24 year was the second highest among Oregon’s public universities, behind only the University of Oregon, and it has grown at an average annual rate of 4.7%, according to a January state-commissioned report.
At Oregon State’s main campus, resident undergraduate tuition for the 2025-26 academic year is $15,246, while for nonresidents it’s $40,392.
Last year, Oregon State set a target of cutting its budget "strategically" by 5.2%, in part by looking for opportunities to save costs so as to avoid across-the-board reductions in staffing and other areas.
“The university has seen robust revenue growth from enrollment and the associated tuition, but our funding from the state is not meeting OSU’s continuing service levels, and our overall costs are outpacing revenues,” the university said on a dedicated webpage about its budget efforts.
As part of the state's January report, Oregon State leaders pointed to their enrollment increases as an outlier among Oregon’s public colleges.
Specifically, they noted that full-time equivalent enrollment fell an average of 7% between 2013-14 and 2022-23 to 79,103 FTE students across the state’s institutions. But Oregon State enrollment rose 16% during that period, and it has continued to grow since then, reaching a record 38,460 students last fall.
That growth has increased costs tied to student support, disability accommodations, mental health services, crisis intervention and sexual assault prevention, Oregon State leaders said.
They also noted that the university faced different cost structures than many of its peer institutions due to its status as a land-grant university with an R1 research classification.
Oregon State “operates at a scale, complexity, and scope unmatched by other Oregon public universities,” leaders told state officials in the report. “These distinctions create structurally different cost profiles, revenue sources, and compliance requirements that must be considered when interpreting spending and efficiency metrics.”
Other public universities in the state are facing steeper financial challenges. Portland State University’s president recently proposed eliminating three academic departments and trimming many others to head off what she described as a potential “financial crisis.”
Southern Oregon University is facing even deeper fiscal risks, with lawmakers recently approving a $15 million lifeline to prevent a precipitous cash shortfall that was projected to hit hard next year.
Even the University of Oregon has felt pain, laying off dozens of employees last year to close a budget deficit of tens of millions of dollars.
In that environment, state lawmakers this month pressed an initiative directing its state colleges to look for ways to integrate and reduce costs. But the proposal has faced pushback from faculty and college leaders.
