Divided UNC Board of Trustees votes to raise in-state undergraduate tuition

The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to raise tuition for in-state undergraduates for the first time in nearly a decade, in a narrow 6-5 decision Thursday morning.

The 3% hike, which would take effect for students starting in the 2026-27 academic year if approved by the UNC Board of Governors, equates to a roughly $211 increase in undergraduate resident tuition, which has held steady at $7,019 per year since 2017.

“I think the messaging is important,” UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said Thursday, “and the key is that [in-state undergraduate] tuition has been flat for nine going on 10 years. It’s actually gone down in inflation-adjusted terms by about 20%.”

The decision — made with four trustees absent — comes a day after the Board of Trustees’ Budget, Finance and Infrastructure Committee directed Nate Knuffman, UNC’s chief financial officer, to scrap the in-state hike and instead create a plan to impose higher increases on other groups of students. The committee deferred a final vote to Thursday, directing Knuffman to come back with a proposal that met its myriad requests.

Budget committee members and trustees Marty Kotis and Jim Blaine led the effort to reject the in-state hike, arguing the increase violated the state’s constitutional mandates to provide the university’s benefits to North Carolina residents as free as practically possible.

Instead of preparing a new proposal, Knuffman asked the full board to reconsider the administration’s original plan on Thursday. The board eventually sided with the administration’s original proposal for the in-state tuition hike, a plan that also included increases for required fees (by 3%) to support improvements to UNC Campus Recreation and its wellness centers, housing (7%), dining (3.9%), and tuition for out-of-state undergraduates (10%), as well as some select school-based tuition increases for graduate programs.

“ This board will continue to be committed to taking a look at the overall budget,” board Chair Malcolm Turner said. “Again, those cost drivers and revenue sources matter. We are living in an environment that’s rapidly evolving around us. We will continue to monitor as a board with the chancellor’s leadership and his team, and we’ll respond accordingly as developments occur.”

Current in-state undergraduates will not be impacted in this plan. The in-state tuition hike is expected to generate roughly $800,000 in the first year.

“No current students are affected by the tuition increase, and we’ll still remain one of the best values in higher education,” Roberts said. “We’re required to stay in the bottom quartile for the entire peer group. So none of that’s going to change.”

The approval came with plenty of spirited debate. Kotis argued UNC had not exhausted “all other levers before proposing resident increases.” Blaine called the in-state tuition hike the “easy button” and “lazy.”

This decision comes after the UNC System Board of Governors announced in September it would allow campuses to propose a tuition increase — of up to 3% — for the first time since 2017. The board argued the increase was necessary due to inflation and a tightening state budget.

NC State University’s Affairs Committee planned to consider a 3% tuition increase for all undergraduate and graduate students on Thursday.

The Board of Governors must give its approval to any proposed tuition hikes before they go into effect. That applies to both UNC and NC State.

“We’re trying to be good stewards,” Roberts said of the UNC Board of Trustees’ decision Thursday. “We’re trying to balance the responsibility to maintain affordability with using the levers that we have to run the university as effectively as we can.”

The board members voted as follows on the administration’s tuition proposal:

• Malcolm Turner: Yes
• Ramsey White: N/A (absent)
• Marty Kotis: No
• William Allen: No
• Richard Allison: Yes
• Patrick Ballantine: No
• Jim Blaine: No
• Robert Bryan: N/A (absent)
• Perrin Jones: N/A (absent)
• Vimal Kolappa: N/A (absent)
• Jennifer Lloyd: Yes
• Ralph Meekins: Yes
• Vinay Patel: Yes
• John Preyer: No
• Adolfo Alvarez (student body president): Yes

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 12:56 PM.