Texas State University announced it will not increase the price of tuition for students through the 2025-26 academic year at an open house on Thursday, Nov. 14
The decision means students will not face an increase in tuition until at least the 2026-27 academic year. The decision does not freeze increases for fees, such as the athletics fee.
Tuition for one year, based on 15 credit hours per semester, is currently $12,220 for in-state students and $24,520 for out-of-state students.
“We are making a commitment. We didn’t increase tuition last year either, we’re not increasing tuition this year,” Texas State University’s Chief Financial Officer Eric Algoe said. “And there is a pretty good likelihood we’re going to try and maintain that commitment in the coming years as well.”
According to Algoe, increased enrollment and first-year retention have increased the amount of money coming into the university. Algoe also credited increased funding from the state government, such as the Texas University Fund.
“We’re appreciative of the support of the Texas State Legislature, in the last session they were very generous to higher education,” Algoe said.
Texas State’s announcement came just a day after Gov. Greg Abbott issued a letter to the boards of all Texas public university systems telling them not to increase tuition through 2026-27.
“When inflation and other economic pressures burden household budgets, our public universities must take every step possible to ease the financial burden on our students and their families,” Abbott wrote in the letter.
While Texas State’s announcement came after Abbott’s letter, the open house was already planned and Algoe said that the university had already decided to freeze tuition.
According to Algoe, the Texas State University System’s Board of Regents has not met to agree to Abbott’s request.
“We looked at everything from no tuition increase to an increase that is commensurate with inflation,” Algoe said. “In this case, we were able to look at the financial plan of the university… that we can forego tuition increases for at least this coming fall.”
Texas State University Provost Pranesh Aswath said if enrollment slows or decreases in the coming years, the university will be forced to revisit the tuition decision and will consider several other measures.
“We really [would] need to take a deeper dive to see how can we optimize our enrollment and available class sizes and scheduling time,” Aswath said. “There are a number of different things we have to look at to make sure that we are actually optimizing our resources and reducing the overall cost.”
According to a Sept. 12 release from the university,
Texas State was the most applied to school through ApplyTexas by high school seniors for the fall 2024 semester. According to Aswath, high school graduation rates will stay high through 2027. These two factors make the university confident enrollment will not decrease in the coming years.
We’re already looking into the future, not waiting until 2027 and saying ‘Oh what do we do now?’ I don’t anticipate a drop [in enrollment] for at least two years,” Aswath said.
Algoe said while the university wants to make college education more affordable, lowering tuition would require action from the state, or big changes on behalf of the university.
“There are two things that can work towards that; one would be a significant increase in state support,” Algoe said. “The other way that it could happen is we continue to evolve and look at completely new, different and innovative education models.”
Algoe stated new education models would not focus on increasing class sizes or implementing changes that could compromise the quality of education.
Algoe also said that the university would continue to expand affordability options such as Bobcat Promise and various tuition exemptions and waivers.
