Rutgers Tuition And Fee Freeze For 2020-21 School Year

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — There will be a tuition and fee freeze for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year at Rutgers University, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rutgers University Board of Governors approved the tuition freeze Tuesday of this week. Housing and dining rates at all three campus locations will also hold at last year’s levels.

For 2020-21, a typical in-state, full-time arts and sciences undergraduate at Rutgers University-New Brunswick would be billed $15,407 in combined tuition and mandatory student fees. That does not include dorm fees.

At Rutgers University-Newark, tuition and fees for a typical full-time arts and sciences undergraduate will be $14,826, and, at Rutgers University-Camden, a typical arts and sciences undergraduate’s tuition and fees will be $15,264.

2020-21 will mark the first year in recent memory that Rutgers has not had a tuition increase; ever year for at least the past five years, Rutgers has raised tuition incrementally, an average of 2.2 percent per year.

It took coronavirus to change that.

Mark Angelson, chair of the Board of Governors, called the COVID pandemic "an unprecedented crisis."

Thanks to the virus, Rutgers is also facing "extraordinary financial challenges," outgoing Rutgers President Robert Barchi freely admitted this week.

Rutgers is expecting revenue losses of about $67 million next year, on top of an estimated reduction of $88 million in state appropriations – which typically account for approximately 10 percent of the university’s total revenue sources each year.

Scholarship and fellowship expenses are also expected to increase by $14.7 million to provide additional financial aid resources for students.

To address the budget deficit, the university implemented cost-saving measures in April including a hiring freeze, limits on salary increases, pay cuts for senior administrators, the suspension of new capital projects and a review of active projects, and a freeze on discretionary spending related to university operations.

This week, the board also approved a $4.5 billion budget for the upcoming academic year, a 2.2 percent reduction from the previous year.