SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Students attending Missouri State University-West Plains during the 2017-2018 academic year will see an increase in their basic tuition.
Wednesday, at the Missouri State University Board of Governors Executive Committee meeting in Springfield, members approved a resolution calling for fees to increase $5 per credit hour for in-state residents and $10 per credit hour for out-of-state residents beginning with the 2017 fall semester. The increases will put tuition at $124 per credit hour for Missouri residents and $248 per credit hour for non-Missouri residents, which is 4 percent more than last year’s rate. Tuition is lower for Missouri residents because Missouri State-West Plains is a state-assisted institution, university officials explained.
“We at Missouri State University-West Plains are very mindful of the impact that increasing tuition has on students from our area,” Chancellor Drew Bennett said. “We carefully weigh the growing needs of our campus and the standards that we want to maintain against what it will cost our students in tuition and the other sources of revenue available when making these decisions. Unfortunately, in addition to reducing programs, people and services, we must also raise tuition to help compensate for the extensive budget cuts to higher education.”
OTHER FEES
Several other fees also will increase. The fee charged for online courses will go from $137 to $142 per credit hour for in-state and out-of-state students, and courses in the Associate of Science in Nursing degree program will go from $154 to $159 per credit hour for Missouri residents and $308 to $318 per credit hour for out-of-state students. Students in the Associate of Applied Science in Respiratory Care program will pay $149 per credit hour for in-state students, up $5 from last year’s rate of $144; out-of-state students will pay $298 per credit hour, up $10 from last year’s $288 rate.
University officials explained the fee structure for online, nursing and respiratory care courses is different than that for other classes due to the additional costs associated in providing these programs.
Fees for classes in the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance (VESTA) program, headquartered at the Missouri State University campus in Mountain Grove, will remain at $210 per credit hour.
COMMON FEE
University officials also will begin charging the Common Fee first announced last spring. The $17-per-credit-hour Common Fee replaces the capital projects fee, student activities fee, professional services fee, computer and technology fee, the Student Recreation Center, application fee, diploma fee, graduation fee, transcript fee, and cap and gown fee.
University officials explained that combining many of the campus’ fees into one Common Fee makes it easier to manage refunds of federal aid grants, remove barriers of application for admission, and potentially increase graduation rates by not requiring students to pay several graduation-related fees in the last semester. It also makes it easier for students to calculate all of their charges each semester. The fee, which includes a two-year subscription to the Chalk and Wire online software product that students use to upload electronic documents and assignments for their capstone courses, is designed to maintain the current funding level for the accounts the fees have historically funded, university officials said.
DUAL CREDIT/DUAL ENROLLMENT
Course fees for high school dual credit and dual enrollment students will go up in 2017-18, as well, to $62 per credit hour – half of the tuition rate for Missouri residents rounded to the nearest dollar. In addition, dual credit students taking dual credit courses at area high schools will be charged a modified Common Fee of $6 per credit hour beginning this fall, bringing the total charge to $68 per credit hour. Dual enrollment students taking courses on the Missouri State-West Plains campus will pay the $17 per credit hour Common Fee.
RESIDENCE HALLS
Students staying in the Grizzly House residence hall also will see an increase in room and board. Those fees will go up from $2,851 per semester for housing and a 20-meal-per-week plan at the Putnam Student Center cafeteria to $2,910 per semester in 2017-18. Summer charges will increase from $1,218 to $1,250.
Students staying at the Grizzly Lofts, a privately-owned residence hall near campus on Missouri Avenue that is managed by the university, will pay $3,000 per semester for housing and a 20-meal-per-week plan at the on-site Sole Café.
For more information about tuition and student fees, contact the Missouri State-West Plains business office at 417-255-7260.