Wisconsin residents at the University have received good and bad news regarding their 1998-99 tuition rates.
University students from Wisconsin will benefit from a tuition increase of 4.9 percent though University of Wisconsin administrators had expected hikes to reach 7 percent.
But on July 1, a new reciprocity agreement between the schools will increase tuition for Wisconsin natives by about $200 each year.
Since 1991, the University has based Wisconsin students’ tuition on rates at the Madison campus.
Wisconsin natives comprise more than one-fourth of the University’s incoming students, and that number is growing.
Wisconsin school officials said a good economy enabled them to reign in tuition increases.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison paid $3,242 in 1997-98. The latest boost will heighten prices at the Madison campus by about $70 per quarter. The University charged $4,268 for undergraduates.
Higher education officials from Minnesota and Wisconsin developed a new reciprocity formula that will charge Wisconsin residents more.
Under the old terms, Wisconsin students would have paid the Madison rates. With the change, those students will pay the same rates plus a 25 percent surcharge on the difference between the schools.
Even with the new formula, Wisconsin residents will pay less than the in-state rate.
Wisconsin citizens complained the previous agreement forced them to pay high tax costs to send students across state lines, said Tom Gilson, senior analyst in the Office of Planning and Analysis at the University.
Responding to these complaints, officials from both states devised the new policy last summer.
University officials said the new reciprocity agreement will not deter Wisconsin students from the University.
“My instincts tell me that in the short term it probably won’t have a major impact,” said Wayne Sigler, director of admissions at the University. “But it is something we have to watch.”
Stephen DesJardins, former senior analyst in the Office of Planning and Analysis, studied the possible effects of the new surcharge. He estimates the University will lose about eight Wisconsin students out of more than 1,000 expected to enroll next year.
He said Wisconsin residents come to the University for reasons other than tuition and are generally very affluent, so the price swell won’t affect their school choice.
“I am confident that this change in reciprocity will have no difference,” DesJardins said.