Bowling Green State University trustees voted
unanimously Friday to bump up tuition 2 percent this fall – holding onto the ranking as the third most
expensive university for tuition and general fees of Ohio’s 13 public institutions.When room and board are
added to the total, however, BGSU ranks ninth in the state.The trustees, faced with a $3 million decrease in
state funding next year, approved the tuition and general fee hikes for the Bowling Green and Firelands
campuses.For the Bowling Green campus, that means tuition rates will increase $91 a semester for full-time,
in-state undergraduate students taking 12 to 18 credit hours. General fees will increase $15 a semester for
all students.That will bring the average annual cost of fees and tuition to $10,590. The only public
universities in Ohio with higher rates are Miami University at $13,726 and University of Cincinnati at
$10,784.There will be no change to tuition for graduate students, or the out-of-state surcharges for
undergraduate or graduate students.The tuition hike is necessary due to a change in state funding, according
to Sheri Stoll, chief financial officer for BGSU."We are embarking upon a very significant change for
the funding of higher education," Stoll told the board of trustees Friday.The state is planning an
anticipated 4.5 percent decrease in state share of instruction. The new funding model has more state funding
dependent on the student degree completion rate. In the past, nearly 60 percent of the state funding was
based on course completion, and 20 percent was based on degree completion. Now, 50 percent will be based on
degree completion, and 30 percent on course completion.BGSU officials have been working on increasing its
student retention rate, since it loses out on state funding when students don’t complete their degrees.To
offset the ongoing reduction in state support, BGSU officials have been working for several years to reduce
costs by finding ways to be more efficient and to generate additional income without raising tuition. These
short- and long-term measures have ranged from an employee separation incentive plan, participation in a
state university insurance consortium, and renegotiation of vendor supply and service contracts.