A history of UW System tuition increases: Two-year freeze unprecedented

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that a proposal to freeze student tuition at UW System campuses for the next two years would mark the first two-year freeze for the four-year campuses in the System’s 42-year history. The last freeze was more than 10 years ago, in the 2000-’01 academic year. Tuition skyrocketed after that – more than doubling within eight years of the freeze – as state tax support dramatically decreased, percentage-wise, and families were asked to pick up a much larger share of the cost of a college education. Since the 2000 tuition freeze, students at the four-year campuses have seen tuition increases of 7%, 8.1%, 16.7%, 14.3%, 6.9%, 6.8%, and six consecutive years of 5.5% increases. Some schools saw even higher increases because of tuition differentials. Interesting history.