The Fiscal Policy Institute today released a new cost analysis report, The True Cost of Tuition Hikes on SUNY & CUNY Students. The report estimates the full costs of SUNY and CUNY tuition based on the Executive Budget tuition proposals, including the budget proposal to increase SUNY university center tuition, including Stony Brook University, by up to 9 percent per year.
“The Hochul administration’s proposal to raise the bar to entry for SUNY and CUNY blunts New York’s most effective policy tool for advancing economic opportunity. As a result, tuition increases risk dampening the state’s economic prosperity and threatening its long-term fiscal stability,” said Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Nathan Gusdorf. “CUNY and SUNY colleges are national leaders in upward economic mobility, supporting children from low-income families to earn high incomes as adults. These tuition hikes would represent a generational shift in New York State’s higher education landscape, moving its public universities from among the most accessible in the U.S. to among the most expensive.”
Key findings include:
At Stony Brook University, and New York’s three other SUNY university centers — which more than 40% of SUNY undergraduates attend — the executive budget authorizes 9% annual tuition increases starting in Fall 2023.
By 2027, the cost of a four-year undergraduate education at a SUNY university center could rise by 52%, or $22,300.
Both in-state and out-of-state tuition for SUNY university centers could become among the most expensive for public flagship universities in the U.S; after five years of increases, in-state tuition would vault from the most affordable quarter of public flagship universities in the U.S. to the most expensive quarter.
Tuition increases would hit the CUNY system as it faces a hiring freeze and $175 million in cuts — five to six percent of its total budget — in fiscal year 2024, potentially decreasing enrollment.
The executive budget allows a far higher rate of tuition hikes for SUNY’s four university centers: Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Stony Brook. Each year, university center tuition would be allowed to rise by 9 percent (an additional 6 percentage points on top of the 3 percent tuition hikes authorized for all SUNY campuses). The proposal limits university center tuition to no more than 30 percent above the SUNY base tuition, which would allow a total increase over five years of 51 percent. The proposal would authorize the SUNY board of trustees to increase undergraduate tuition rates beginning in academic year 2023-24, and continuing indefinitely.
The average SUNY tuition is currently $8,600. After five years of tuition increases under the executive budget proposal, the base tuition rate across SUNY campuses could reach $9,900 per year, a 16 percent increase from its current rate. At the university centers, tuition for in-state students could reach $16,200 per year, 51 percent higher than its current level. Out-of-state student tuition could rise as high as $46,200, a 61 percent increase.
A four-year education at a SUNY university center currently costs $43,100. Under the proposed hikes, this cost could rise $22,300 for students graduating in 2031, a 52 percent increase. For out-of-state students, the cost of a four-year education could rise $80,200, or 70 percent. An increase of this magnitude would likely depress SUNY’s already low share of out-of-state students. At 9 percent, SUNY’s share of out-of-state students is the third-lowest in the U.S.
The executive budget proposals would allow CUNY tuition to rise at the same rate as SUNY base tuition — as high as 3 percent or HEPI. These tuition increases will hit the CUNY system as it faces deep cuts imposed by New York City. Amid broad-based cuts imposed by New York City, the university system is imposing a hiring freeze and targeting $175 million in cuts — five to six percent of its total budget — in fiscal year 2024. Budget cuts and tuition hikes may continue pushing enrollment down for the system, which has seen enrollment fall in recent years.
The Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that advances sound and equitable fiscal policy to strengthen New York’s economy through research, analysis and strategic communications.
