Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said in a statement that the state’s universities have become dependent on tuition due to lagging state funding over many years, but the “turnaround” from proposed cuts to the state investing in the budget will help “preserve access and affordability” for students and families. Rothman and UW-Madison Jennifer Mnookin testify in front of the Legislative Audit Committee in April 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

University of Wisconsin system campuses will raise their undergraduate tuition by a maximum of 5% next year, under a plan UW President Jay Rothman announced Tuesday. 

The announcement comes just days after the state Legislature passed and Gov. Tony Evers signed a state budget that includes increased investments in the system by over $200 million for operational costs and over $800 million for capital projects. While the increases took a different direction from Republican’s proposed cuts, they are nowhere near the $855 million operational budget increase initially requested by the system last year when Rothman warned that tuition increases would be on the table if there wasn’t significant investment. 

Rothman said in a statement that the state’s universities have become dependent on tuition due to lagging state funding over many years, but the “turnaround” from proposed cuts to the state investing in the budget will help “preserve access and affordability” for students and families. 

“Preserving quality while maintaining our ability to be a leader on tuition affordability in the Midwest is a top priority,” Rothman said. “After a decade of a tuition freeze and lagging state aid, we believe we have struck a balance for students and families with this proposal and the recent state investments in the UWs as part of the 2025-27 biennial budget.”

Rothman will ask the UW Board of Regents to approve a 4% increase at all campuses for the 2025-26 year. 

Individual campuses would also have the option under his proposal of implementing an additional 1% increase. All universities except UW-Green Bay plan to adopt that. UW-River Falls is also seeking to increase its tuition even further by 5.8% to support “ student success initiatives.” 

Under the proposal, nonresident undergraduate tuition at each campus would increase by the same percentage or dollar amount. 

The system noted that most of the increases approved in the state budget are for specific purposes, including virtual mental health services, wage increases and addressing staff recruitment and retention. 

State funding today makes up about a fifth of the UW’s total revenue. The UW system’s 2023-25 biennial budget was $13.7 billion with 58% of that coming from program revenue, 24% from the federal government and 18% from general purpose revenue. 

In 1984-85, state general purpose revenue made up 41.8% of the UW System’s budget. 

According to the UW system, the average increase when segregated fees and room and board costs are included would be 3.8%. 

If approved, the increase will be the third consecutive year of tuition increases for UW since the end of a 10-year tuition freeze in 2023. The system said its tuition increased just 7.7% from 2015 to 2025, below the tuition increases for its peers in other states that had increases ranging from  21.7% to 28.8% over the 10 years.

The UW Board of Regents will consider the plan on July 10.

Here are the proposed resident undergraduate tuition costs for 2025-26 at each campus:

• UW-Eau Claire: $10,067
• UW-Green Bay: $8,985
• UW-La Crosse: $10,360
• UW-Madison: $12,166
• UW-Milwaukee: $10,916
• UW-Oshkosh: $8,993
• UW-Parkside: $8,658
• UW-Platteville: $8,812
• UW-River Falls: $9,249
• UW-Stevens Point: $9,477
• UW-Stout: $9,859
• UW-Superior: $9,272
• UW-Whitewater: $8,819