State universities in Pa. plan only modest tuition increases

The heads of Pennsylvania’s state-owned and state-related universities say they’ll be able to keep tuition increases in line with inflation, under the state budget that now needs only the governor’s signature.

Temple University’s base tuition won’t change.

Lincoln University students will see a 3 percent hike.

And Penn State’s president says he’ll propose up to a 3 percent tuition increase for in-state students. That’s the lowest increase in more than three decades.

“I will be going to the Penn State’s board of trustees two weeks from today to propose the lowest tuition increase that we’ve had in the past 35 years,” said President Rodney Erickson Friday. “That will be 2.9 percent for Pennsylvania resident students at University Park and 1.9 percent for our commonwealth campuses.

University officials credit lawmakers who lobbied to keep their funding level.

Chancellors of the University of Pittsburgh and the 14 state-system schools have not said what kind of tuition rate increase they’ll propose, but they say the increases will be minimal.

State-system schools and three of four state-related schools were in Gov. Tom Corbett’s cross-hairs in February when he proposed 20 percent and 30 percent cuts, respectively, to their state funding.

Corbett says improved state tax collections allowed him to reconsider the cuts.