Over the past 32 years, annual tuition increases for undergraduate resident students at the University of Kansas have averaged 9.1 percent. However, the actual year-to-year increases have ranged from zero to 25.2 percent, making it difficult for students and families to create and implement the long-term financial plans that are necessary to pay for a college education.

To provide more cost predictability, and to enable students and families to plan more effectively, KU students proposed establishing a guaranteed four-year tuition program. On March 16, 2005, KU's Student Senate approved a resolution that supported the development and implementation of a fixed-cost tuition program. This student-driven initiative, endorsed and supported by the University administration, is the basis of KU's Four-Year Tuition Compact.

The Kansas Board of Regents endorsed the concept of a fixed-rate tuition plan for KU undergraduate students at its October 2006 meeting. The May 2007 tuition proposal which KU submitted to the Board of Regents included the Four-Year Tuition Compact program for first-time, degree-seeking freshmen, resident and nonresident. On June 28, 2007, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the KU proposal, and the Four-Year Tuition Compact was established for the freshman class entering in Fall 2007. On June 12, 2008, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the second set of Four-Year Tuition Compact rates for the freshman class entering in Fall 2008, and on June 25, 2009, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the third set of Four-Year Tuition Compact rates for the freshman class entering Fall 2009.

Below are selected attributes of the Tuition Compact.

(1) Beginning with the Fall 2007 freshman class, first-time, degree-seeking KU freshmen will pay special tuition rates, known as Compact Tuition rates, for 4 full years. These per-credit-hour rates will not increase during the four-year period, and students may take as many or as few classes as they wish.

(2) The KU Four-Year Tuition Compact is not a tuition savings or discounted tuition plan. It is a cost predictor. It provides freshmen and their families with fixed tuition rates to help students and their families estimate many of the costs associated with earning a four-year undergraduate degree at KU.

(3) The Tuition Compact matches the length of time for a student taking 16 hours a semester to complete most bachelor's degree programs at KU. Students not included in the Four-Year Tuition Compact will pay regular tuition rates, known as Standard Tuition rates.

(4) After four years of the Tuition Compact, all KU undergraduate students would be participating in a four-year, fixed tuition rate program.

(5) Academic Course Fees are established four years in advance. This provides an additional measure of educational cost certainty for all KU students, including students paying Standard Tuition.

Additional information and supporting documents can be found in the table below.

Summer 2009