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All of Indiana’s public colleges and universities will freeze in-state undergraduate tuition for the next two school years, the Governor’s Office announced Tuesday.
That includes the seven flagship institutions—Ball State University; Indiana State University; Indiana University; Ivy Tech Community College; Purdue University; University of Southern Indiana and Vincennes University—and satellite campuses, such as IU Indianapolis and Purdue University Fort Wayne.
According to the Governor’s Office, state records indicate this is the first time in nearly 15 years that more than two campuses have frozen tuition at the same time.
“A month ago, we challenged our state’s public higher education institutions to find efficiencies, eliminate redundancies and identify ways to streamline services without compromising quality,” Gov. Mike Braun said in a written statement. “The commitment made by all of Indiana’s public colleges and universities puts students and parents first and demonstrates to the rest of the country that Indiana is a leader in providing a high quality education at an affordable price.”
Under Indiana Code, the state’s Commission for Higher Education is required to make recommendations regarding tuition and fees within 30 days of the enactment of the state’s biennial budget. Earlier this year, the Commission voted unanimously to support Braun’s recommendation of holding rates flat for Indiana undergraduates.
Samantha Fleischaker, a student member of the Commission and a student at the University of Southern Indiana, said in a written statement that keeping tuition rates flat is “the difference between opportunity and what feels impossible.”
“Keeping tuition flat keeps the door open for students of all backgrounds, all ZIP codes, and all walks of life,” she said. “It sends the message that education is not just for one demographic—it’s for all people.”
Several of the schools had already announced their intent to freeze tuition. Purdue, known for previous, longstanding freezes, endorsed a two-year freeze in its board of trustees meeting in April. Ivy Tech’s board of trustees approved the move in early June. Also this month, IU’s board of trustees were presented a two-year, in-state tuition freeze coupled with with increased tuition for out-of-state undergraduates and graduate programs, with some exceptions.
However, other institutions had signaled concern, as the governor’s suggested tuition freeze fell at the same time as across-the-board budget cuts. Purdue Fort Wayne and Ivy Tech also instituted layoffs, citing a 5% budget cut and funds withheld by the State Budget Agency.
University of Southern Indiana’s president previously told Inside INdiana Business that a tuition hike seemed “inevitable” amid budget pressures, noting that more than 90% of the school’s operating budget comes from tuition and state appropriations.
Indiana colleges that will freeze tuition
Here’s the full list of schools expected to freeze tuition for in-state undergraduates for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years:
- Ball State University
- Indiana State University
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Indiana University East
- Indiana University Indianapolis
- Indiana University Kokomo
- Indiana University Northwest
- Indiana University South Bend
- Indiana University Southeast
- Ivy Tech Community College
- Purdue University West Lafayette
- Purdue University Fort Wayne
- Purdue University Northwest
- University of Southern Indiana
- Vincennes University
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It’s adorable that Braun can just declare by edict that he’s going to freeze revenues and not affect quality.
Revenues were cut over 15 years ago. The response was to take more international and out of state students to make up the difference and take less Indiana students. We chose to hurt the long term competitiveness of the state of Indiana … at the cost of some tax cuts.
It remains to be seen if the diploma changes, that universities have to take all Indiana students who get the actually qualify, make a meaningful difference in Indiana’s meager number of college graduates. Because we’ve also spent a lot of effort pushing HS grads to do something other than college.
Agreed. IU has already announced:
“To address significant state and federal funding cuts while keeping tuition flat and providing employees with a 2% annual salary increase, IU will reduce its retirement contributions by 1% for all current and new employees…”
Compensation begins low at IU, but they make up for that in part by providing is a generous benefits package that includes a large automatic contribution to retirement with no match requirement. You start to chip away at that benefits package in the name of keeping tuition flat, IU employees are going to look for the exits and quality will suffer. It’s already happening…
The politicians complain about the lack of in state graduates and now the door was just opened to be more reliant than ever on out-of-state students. This is especially true with high demand courses. Purdue’s vet program is 3 out of state students to every in state student and now we have a shortage of vets in Indiana – go figure.
The incoming class of 84 veterinary students at Purdue was recently finalized. The class of 2029 is made up of 52 in-state candidates and 32 out-of-state candidates. That’s more like 60% in-state and 40% out-of-state.
What is the purpose of a university? It is not to provide a cheaper education; it is to provide a better education. Braun’s penchant for governing by fiat is motivated by his private sector mindset that is focused on the economic bottom line, as though widgets can always be manufactured at a lower cost (they can, but remember that while we always want everything to be good, fast, and cheap…we can only get two of those things). If he truly wants to give students “a deal,” then ask students to commit to staying in Indiana for X number of years in exchange for lower tuition. At least we would then have a better chance of retaining the talent.
This all sounds good! The universities all have more than enough money, and this will help the new student loans, and the parents that help pay, and it’s only a 2 year deal.
“Seven flagship institutions”
Continued dumbing down of the language.
There is only one flagship in a fleet.
Shocking that a Wabash grad doesn’t value public education. Gutting the quality of education in Indiana will give him a platform to run for a Presidential primary in a couple years.
To be fair, he’s also overhauled the IEDC so that they won’t bring business to Indiana. In a few years, we won’t have college grads or jobs that require them, so I guess it will be a good match.
The Braun Administration is the epitome of the “pull the ladder up after us” baby boomers. They benefitted greatly from government spending and are enduring their grandkids never have the same advantages.
Yea, those greedy baby boomers … who fought in Vietnam and endured double-digit inflation and interest rates for the first decade or more of their working lives.
“Baby boomers are the wealthiest generation to have ever lived, a new report from Allianz has found, courtesy of affordable housing and strong equity markets providing huge returns on savings.
Millennials, on the other hand, have been the “biggest loser” in the wealth race, courtesy of “crisis after crisis,” the company’s 2024 Global Wealth Report reveals.”
https://fortune.com/2024/10/03/boomers-wealthiest-generation-millennials-biggest-losers/