NC State trustees vote for tuition increase for undergrads and grad students
A day after a committee approved a tuition increase for undergraduate and graduate students at N.C. State University, the university’s full Board of Trustees solidified the decision.
Now, the proposal to raise tuition by 3% will head to the UNC System Board of Governors for final approval in January before taking effect. The board must approve all tuition increased for UNC System schools.
The tuition increase will take effect next fall, according to Mick Kulikowski, a spokesperson for N.C. State.
All categories of students will see a 3% increase in the fall: in-state undergraduate students, in-state graduate students, out-of-state undergraduate students and out-of-state graduate students.
Returning students won’t be impacted by the tuition increase, Kulikowski said.
On Thursday afternoon, the 3% tuition increase proposal starting during the 2026-27 year was approved unanimously by the University Affairs Committee without discussion or debate. The Board of Trustees met on Friday morning to review the proposal.
At the committee meeting, Chancellor Kevin Howell read a statement saying the university was committed to remaining “affordable and accessible, especially for our in-state students,” adding that the tuition increase would support the school's programmatic needs.
Current in-state tuition is $8,895, while out-of-state tuition is $31,767. What the tuition increase will look like for different groups of students:
- $196 for undergraduate North Carolina residents
- $945 for undergraduate non-residents
- $307 for graduate North Carolina residents
- $946 for graduate non-residents
In total, the projected revenue from the tuition increase is over $7.7 million.
In addition to the tuition increase, N.C. State students will also see fee increases in student government, the student operations center, an education and technology fee and bus service.
This is the first time N.C. State and other schools within the UNC System have raised in-state, undergraduate tuition since 2017. The decision comes weeks after the UNC Board of Governors allowed the schools to consider a 3% increase due to inflation and other costs.
Before the N.C. State leaders met, the UNC Board of Trustees voted in Chapel Hill to raise tuition there by 3%, reversing a decision made a day earlier by a key committee that rejected the proposal.
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM.