4 Percent Tuition Increase At Rutgers For 2024/25 School Year

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — On Monday, the Rutgers Board of Governors announced here they approved a four percent increase in tuition and fees for the 2024-2025 academic year.

At the same time, there is a bill currently before the New Jersey Legislature that would cap annual tuition hikes at NJ's public colleges and universities at two percent.

The legislation is called A4538 and it was introduced in June; it would only apply to New Jersey's public community colleges and four-year colleges/universities, not private universities.

NJ Bill Would Limit College Tuition Hikes To 2 Percent

"The cost of higher education continues to rise for families in the state of New Jersey," Assemblyman Cody Miller, D-Gloucester, one of the bill’s sponsors, told NJ.com. “It’s not just low- and moderate-income people, everyone’s hurting.”

Rutgers said this four percent tuition hike means an average increase of $274 per semester.

Tuition for a typical full-time arts and sciences undergraduate at Rutgers who is a New Jersey resident will increase from $6,837 to $7,111. Fees vary by program, but average mandatory fees are estimated to increase by about $63 per semester.

Like many private companies, Rutgers' budget year began July 1. The school said they had to adjust for the following rises in costs this year: Increases in negotiated salaries for professors, increases in costs for employee health insurance premiums and pension contributions, need-based student financial aid and inflationary increases in supplies and general operating expenses.

About 75 percent of Rutgers undergraduates received some form of student financial aid.

Funding for Rutgers budget, up from $5.4 billion last year, comes largely through tuition and fees (27 percent); the state of New Jersey (21 percent); healthcare services (20 percent); sponsored research (15 percent); and miscellaneous sources, including housing, dining, parking services, student aid, athletics, gifts and donations, and endowment and investment income (17 percent).

Rutgers’ chief financial officer and treasurer J. Michael Gower said the school is "looking for ways to do things differently and better as we pursue opportunities to generate additional net revenue to fund new initiatives, make maintenance improvements and replenish reserves."

The majority of Rutgers' $5.6 billion operating budget — 77 percent — is spent on the university’s core mission of student instruction, research, public service and healthcare. Nearly 15 percent is allocated for administration, operations and maintenance; 5 percent is spent on services such as housing, dining and parking operations; and 3 percent is spent on Division I athletics.