Indiana University President Michael McRobbie is calling for a two-year tuition freeze for in-state students attending the university's Bloomington campus.
"These tuition recommendations reinforce our commitment to student affordability while allowing us to advance a positive agenda for IU's future that is consistent with the needs of the state," McRobbie said in a statement.
IU Bloomington offers students the lowest average net cost of attendance among Big Ten schools, with an in-state tuition of $10,387.
Tuition for out-of-state students would increase 1.5 percent in each of the next two years under the proposal.
Tuition at IUPUI and the university's five other regional campuses would increase 1.65 percent per year.
Graduate school tuition will increase at varied rates depending on the school. They will average about 2 percent per year for in-state students and 3 percent for out-of-state students.
MaryFrances McCourt, IU Chief Financial Officer, says student affordability has been a top focus for many years.
"It's a delicate balance of how do we fund the strategic plan that we want to implement but how do we keep tuition as affordable as we can for our students," McCourt says.
IU Bloomington tuition freeze and minimal hikes at other campuses are possible because the university is receiving more state funding.
That increase, McCourt says, is in part because of the university has scored well on performance funding metrics, such as graduation and on-time completion rates, that the Indiana Commission for Higher Education measures.
Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education, says McRobbie's proposal is in line with the recommendations the commission made last week. She says she is also pleased the school will begin looking at banded tuition for all regional campuses.
IU Bloomington already implemented banded tuition, so students pay a flat tuition rate instead of paying per course.
"That's especially important as we're trying to push on-time completion as a state as a way to save money and time," Lubbers said. "Banded tuition will be very important."
The IU Board of Trustees will hear public comments on the recommendation at their June 3 meeting in Indianapolis.
IU's announcement comes one week after the Purdue Board of Trustees voted to extend their tuition freeze through the upcoming academic year. Students who entered the university in fall of 2012 will complete a four-year period without any tuition increase, the first class to do so since the early 1970s.
