University of Regina raising tuition as budget finalized for 2024-25 school year

The University of Regina is once again hiking tuition fees as it creates its budget for the next school year.

In a news release Thursday, the school said its budget for the 2024-25 school year was approved by its board of governors. The budget included a four per cent tuition increase for both undergraduate and graduate studies.

That would mean another $160 per full-time, 15-credit-hour semester, on average, for undergraduate studies, and another $230 per full-time, 12-credit-hour semester, on average, for students in graduate programs.

The school blamed inflationary pressures for the increase.

“The University takes any increase to tuition very seriously and works hard to find the right balance in developing our budget so that we can provide a high-quality post-secondary education and experience to our students while remaining affordable,” Jeff Keshen, the university’s president and vice-chancellor, said in the news release.

“This budget achieves that balance and allows us to reinvest in the programs and services that directly support and benefit students.”

The university raised tuition by four per cent last year as well.

“The university does not take tuition increases lightly and has made every effort to limit them to the level necessary to help cover the rising costs associated with providing quality education, while continuing to make post-secondary education affordable and accessible,” it said at the time.

The school raised tuition by 3.5 per cent the year before, though it also introduced a bundling program to freeze tuition for international students at the same time.

The 2024-2025 budget is expected to be balanced, with money coming in and going out to the tune of $283.1 million. This is the first time in four years the school isn’t expecting to run a deficit.

The coming school year will also be the final year of a four-year funding agreement with the provincial government which became controversial the last few years as universities faced the years of zero per cent increases.

In this spring budget, the University of Regina did get a one-time, $2.4 million funding top up from the provincial government.

The university said it’s in talks with government on a new funding agreement.