As expected, tuition is going up this year at the University of South Carolina.
What wasn’t as expected is the amount it is going up — 3.6 percent, the lowest tuition increase at USC since 2001.

Having been stung by $55 million in state cuts this year, USC decided to raise tuition according to the Higher Education Price Index, a widely used annual indicator of changes in costs for colleges and universities compiled from data recorded by the federal government and various economic agencies.

The index “is essentially the rate of inflation,” USC president Harris Pastides wrote in an op-ed recently published in The State newspaper. “Our tuition increase of $159 per semester for in-state undergraduates at the Columbia campus will bring in $7.74 million for recurring needs such as paying professors and supporting and advising our students.”

While comparatively low, the increase comes on the heels of a succession of hikes that have skyrocketed in-state tuition at USC from about $3,500 in 1998-99 to more than $9,000 today.

Elaborating, Pastides wrote, “To deal with the full $55 million in budget cuts, we have closed hundreds of class sections, and many positions have been eliminated. We will not, however, reduce the ability of any student to graduate on time or to achieve degree objectives.”

In a June 11 meeting, the USC board of trustees approved a $1.08 billion budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins July 1. Written into the budget, the tuition increase occurs as USC is expecting one of largest freshmen classes in school history and has received a record number of applications. 


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