University of Denver students and their parents learned recently that the tuition hike for the 2009–10 academic year is the smallest in the last decade. The DU Board of Trustees approved the administration’s recommendation that tuition be increased by 4.9 percent.
Effective in the fall term of 2009, tuition for full-time undergraduate students will be $34,596. With room, board and mandatory student fees, the total cost for undergraduates is $44,977, a 4.8 percent increase.
Nearly 80 percent of DU undergraduates receive financial assistance, and the University has promised to continue increasing the amount of aid available.
During the 2006–07 academic year, DU invested $42.5 million in undergraduate need and merit-based assistance. In 2007–08, the University spent $47.8 million, and this academic year DU is projected to spend $51.3 million — an increase of more than 20 percent in three years. The financial aid office works closely with families to help them find assistance from a variety of sources.
“It is clear that the investments families make to send their students to college in the United States are extraordinary,” Provost Gregg Kvistad wrote in a letter to students and parents. “For the last four years, the University’s financial strategy has been simple and direct: to trim expenses, to increase financial aid for undergraduate and graduate students, and to invest in faculty and academic programs.”
Kvistad explained that unlike many institutions, DU will not increase class sizes, reduce teaching capacity or change the University’s commitment to the Cherrington Global Scholars study-abroad program.
For some graduate programs, students enrolling in 12 to 18 credit hours per quarter will be charged a flat rate (tuition equivalent to 12 credit hours), or $34,596 for the academic year.