Boston University tuition, room and board costs will jump to $47,958 for the next academic year, a 4.5 percent increase over the 2007-08 academic year, President Robert Brown announced in a letter dated March 11.
Books, supplies and expected student expenditures will likely push the annual cost of attendance and living at BU over $50,000. The BU Board of Trustees set tuition at $36,540 for the 2008-09 academic year, up $1,610 from $34,930 this academic year. Up from $10,950, the "basic" room and board rate is set at $11,418 for next year, Brown said in the letter to parents and students. For the 2007-08 academic year, the Office of Financial Assistance estimated books, supplies and "incidentals" at $2,532 for a resident student, according to its website. The undergraduate student fee is set at $510 for next year, according to the registrar's website.
"We remain focused on controlling expenses while also increasing gift and endowment income that can be applied to financial aid," Brown said in the letter, which states BU anticipates using $164.8 million for undergraduate student aid. BU used $150.6 million in institutional funds for undergraduate student aid this year, $126.3 million of which was given out based on student financial need, according to the university's common data set.
BU's budget "relies greatly" on tuition and fees, Brown said in an email to The Daily Free Press. Donations and the portion of the university endowment that can be used for general expenses are insufficient to offset "increases in operating expenses needed to maintain the quality of a Boston University education," he said.
Brown said tuition at private universities like BU is driven by student demands for educational and residential experiences and the pressure to "hire and retain the very best faculty."
"These pressures have driven increases that are higher than the standard measures for cost-of-living increases, as averaged across all goods and services in the country," he said. "The quality of higher education that is being delivered at Boston University and our sister private institutions appears to be meeting an important demand; the 40,000 applications for the Class of 2012 is one indication of the reputation of BU."
BU's tuition-increase rate has been below the national average in recent years, BU spokesman Colin Riley said. Increased utility, energy and health care costs have expanded the university's operating budget, about half of which is funded by tuition, he said.
BU's $1.1 billion endowment is relatively small compared to other schools with smaller student bodies and more endowment funds, he said.
The university posted the 69th largest endowment in the country after the 2007 fiscal year.
"It's the only way BU can operate given that we're dependent on tuition," Riley said of this year's increases.
Graduates who took loans from private companies or the federal or state government for undergraduate education expenses left BU with an average debt of $24,939 in 2007, according to the university's common data set. Sixty percent of undergraduates who graduated in 2007 took out loans.
BU does not record debt incurred by parents funding their child's education because "every case is different," Riley said.
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