Four-Year Tuition Compact

In 2005, the University of Kansas 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 Compact was designed to provide more cost predictability, and to enable students and families to plan more effectively.

In May 2007, the Board of Regents approved the establishment of a Four-Year Tuition Compact for first-time, degree-seeking freshmen, resident and nonresident, entering in Fall 2007. In subsequent years, the Kansas Board of Regents approved additional Four-Year Tuition Compacts for entering freshmen. The most recent Compact, approved on June 20, 2012, sets the four-year tuition rates for the freshmen class entering in Fall 2012. Due to the positive response by KU students to the entering freshmen Compact, a fixed-rate tuition for the four-year Pharm.D. program was implemented in FY 2011.

Below are selected attributes of the Tuition Compact.

(1) First-time, degree-seeking KU freshmen will pay special tuition rates, known as Compact Tuition rates, for four 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 a student taking 15 hours a semester would take 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) All undergraduate students who entered KU as new freshmen are now participating in a four-year, fixed-rate tuition 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.

(6) The Fixed-Rate Tuition for the four-year Pharm.D. program includes 100% of all tuition and fee-related charges: tuition, course fees, and campus fees.

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