UNC governors chair: We’re voting on a rare tuition hike for residents. Here’s why.

In North Carolina, we have a constitutional mandate to provide affordable education to our people. As chair of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, I hold this charge close to my heart. I know my fellow board members do, too.

That’s why, for the past nine years, the Board of Governors and the University of North Carolina System froze tuition for North Carolina undergraduates — and we were hoping to continue the freeze for a full decade. We scrutinized the total cost of attendance at our universities and worked to keep mandatory student fees in check by strongly encouraging our universities to balance any fee increases with efforts to reduce fees in other categories.

But inflation pressures and the rising cost of everyday operations have affected the institutions we lead, and we cannot expect our universities to continue holding the line on in-state tuition without suffering negative impacts on long-term sustainability. As a result, the Board of Governors will vote this week on proposed tuition increases for North Carolina students.

Last fall, when preparing for this change, we informed our institutions that any proposal to raise resident undergraduate tuition shouldn’t tick above 3%, which averages $125 per student. The board and the UNC System recognize that a tuition bump of any amount will affect our students. And we are committed to using good judgment and institutional accountability to limit those effects.

I’m a born and raised North Carolinian, a former teacher, and a passionate advocate for affordable college, so this decision is not an easy one to make. And it is balanced with responsible cost-cutting measures in other areas. For example, we’ve reduced administrative positions at our institutions. We’ve revised how we approve new degree programs. And we’ve evaluated faculty teaching workloads to make sure students are getting full value out of their tuition dollars.

I am glad to say that even with a 3% increase, resident tuition across the UNC System will remain among the lowest in the nation, and well below most of our peer institutions. And it will apply only to newly enrolled students this fall, since returning students are covered by the state’s guaranteed tuition program, which keeps tuition fixed over four years so long as students remain continuously enrolled for eight semesters.

During the past nine years, our student debt levels have also dropped. In 2018, 62% of our graduates held debt from student loans once they graduated and moved into the workforce. By 2025, that percentage had dropped to 48%. We have also seen a significant decrease in the amount of money that students are borrowing for college, a 35% drop between 2018 and 2025. These are wins for North Carolina students and are due in large part to accessibility and affordability efforts made over the past decade.

There is work still to be done around college access, and my colleagues and I are committed to finding responsible and sustainable ways to provide quality education while holding tuition rates as low as possible.

As any parent or student in this state will tell you, the cost of an undergraduate degree involves far more than just tuition. For several years, the Board of Governors has studied total cost of attendance, including expenses such as housing, dining and transportation. Student fees — mandatory charges that cover things like technology, student activities, athletics, and debt service for buildings and campus infrastructure — also make up a large part of a student’s annual bill. We have been careful to vet all proposals for student fees, limiting those increases to 3% as required by law. This year, fee proposals from our campuses average to just a 1% increase, and we will continue to hold our institutions accountable for every dollar charged to our students.

For so much of the UNC System’s history, the debate was not about if tuition would go up, but about how much it would go up. This board, working with our president and our chancellors, changed that expectation. We created a new affordability baseline for North Carolinians, one that prioritizes families and their needs, and that has improved outcomes for our students. That continues to be the driver behind our work. However, we also acknowledge the need to provide for our institutional operations, preserve quality of instruction, and ensure student success. Public higher education, in addition to being affordable, must continue to advance valuable skills in North Carolina, a state with a fast-growing job market. That kind of educational excellence requires investments in outstanding faculty, technologies, and resources that help students prepare for the workforce.

When we strengthen our universities, we strengthen opportunities for the people of our state, now and in the future. That has always been the heart of the constitutional mandate that guides our mission, and with careful stewardship, it will remain so for generations to come.

Wendy Murphy is chair of the UNC Board of Governors.

This story was originally published February 23, 2026 at 1:00 PM with the headline "UNC governors chair: We’re voting on a rare tuition hike for residents. Here’s why.."