Rutgers University to raise costs for tuition, fees, meals and housing

Rutgers University on Monday approved increasing student tuition and fees by 6 percent each.

The university’s Board of Governors also approved raising meal plans by 7 percent and student housing by 5 percent. That means the typical in-state arts and sciences undergraduate will pay an average of $387 more per semester for tuition, from $6,450 to $6,837. Mandatory fees will increase about $100 per semester for those students, according to the university.

The increases are part of a $5.4 billion budget unanimously approved by the board for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

The rising costs to students and families follows a large infusion of state aid approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy to colleges and universities in the 2024 budget, which can help pay for new four-year faculty contracts and other costs at Rutgers. The new contracts will cost $184 million over that period, which includes retroactive payments for the 2023 fiscal year that just ended.

Still, the university has been running at a deficit and faces its own rising costs — inflation, salaries and wages, utilities and, it said, “unprecedented increases” for employee benefits such as health insurance premiums and pension contributions. The newest budget lowers the university’s deficit from $125 million to about $77 million, officials said.

“We are committed to providing access to an excellent academic experience and this budget advances that pledge while meeting our financial responsibilities during a very challenging time,” William E. Best, chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors, said in a statement. “We remain equally committed to strengthening financial aid programs that reduce net costs for a majority of our students.”

Rutgers faculty and staff joined a national wave earlier this year when about 9,000 members of three unions walked out for the first time in the university’s 257-year history.

The five-day strike ended after Murphy forced the two sides to more intense negotiations. But ending the impasse also came with the understanding that the state would be asked to shoulder much of the cost.

“Given the record amount of state support for Rutgers, I am disappointed with the overall size of the tuition increase," Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said in a statement. "Keeping Rutgers affordable, and tuition hikes reasonable, is far more appropriate for the students of our great state.”

Murphy and state officials have kept quiet on the exact cost to the state. As part of the budget Murphy signed last Friday, the state will spend an additional $92 million for higher education — aid that goes not only to Rutgers but other colleges and universities, according to Dory Devlin, a Rutgers spokesperson.

Here is how much the annual cost is for the new contracts, according to Devlin:

— $52.89 million in fiscal 23

— $43.69 million in fiscal 24

— $40.48 million in fiscal 25

— $46.92 million in fiscal 26