This fiscal school year, tuition was raised to an all-time high when the State Board of Education approved a 3% rise in tuition. On March 27, the University of Idaho announced an approved plan to raise student fees by 3%, which makes the fees $757.03 per student per semester for the 2025-26 school year, a total of $1,514.06. For the 2024-25 school year, fees for full-time students per semester were $582, a total of $1,164.
The university has cited inflation and change in employee compensation as the reasons for the increase in both fees and tuition.
Even when it’s just a few dollars here and there, this money adds up and is felt by the students, especially in a time of uncertainty. Grocery store prices continue to rise and the stock market is going down, leading to fears of a possible recession. Students are continuously worrying about how they will balance paying for college and for basic necessities.
“If college prices go up, more of my money will be going to that instead of the other things I need to buy,” said Soren Patten, a first-year student at UI. “If college prices keep rising, I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford college.”
When students are faced with financial stress, they have higher rates of depression, struggle more with academics and have a harder time with social integration, according to the National Library of Medicine.
With that, it’s incredibly important that the university acknowledges this stress when making decisions that will impact their students’ financial strain even further. It seems that most students are completely unaware that these changes are even happening until they have to pay for them. There is no confirmation if the university or ASUI met with students to discuss this increase before it occurred.
Kathy Arulsekar, a third-year international student, is concerned about the announcement.
“I’m kind of worried and distraught because I’m an international student and I can’t always pay that 3% increase.” She was unaware of the increase in fees and what the fees are being used for. “They don’t tell their students where that money is going.”
Student fees cover a wide range of things offered to students on campus, including institutional operations, student clubs and even The Argonaut’s wages. However, that is not highlighted anywhere in a student’s billing information and it’s hard to find even when you are looking for it.
Rebecca Burlingame-Lee, a first-year student, was also shocked to hear about the increase in student fees and expressed her concern for how that might impact the people in her life.
“As students, that puts us in a very unfortunate situation because we can barely afford to live with tuition and fees how they are right now and it’s only going to get harder for us,” Burlingame-Lee said.
When universities decide to raise their students’ cost of attendance, especially when the economy is in an increasingly worrying state, it creates a lasting impact on students’ personal wellbeing and that creates a worse environment for all.
Hilary Valdez can be reached at arg-opinion@uidaho.edu.