By Bridgette Fox | Capitol News Illinois
The cost to attend state universities has been rising, and some institutions have said they’ll have to continue pushing the brunt of state budget shortfalls onto students and families if there isn’t a change.
Data from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which oversees public universities, shows university income has had to make up for the steady loss of funding from the state since around fiscal year 2009 as compared to inflation.
Since that point, state investment hasn’t kept up with inflation, and tuition and fees have risen steadily despite the fact that Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration has regularly increased higher education funding. The fiscal year 2026 proposed budget includes a 3% increase for higher education in the general fund for operating costs – which is about the same as the rate of inflation.
The cost of tuition and fees for statewide undergraduates on average has risen 10% higher since FY09 than if it had simply kept pace with inflation. For graduate students, that discrepancy is 16%.
The University of Illinois Chicago is the only school that has seen tuition and fees for both graduate and undergraduate students grow more slowly than inflation
Tuition and fees for undergraduate students have increased at every public state university except for University of Illinois Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Capitol News Illinois graphic by Bridgette Fox)
Tuition and fees for graduate students have increased at every public state university except for University of Illinois Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Capitol News Illinois graphic by Bridgette Fox)
Administrators from many of the states’ universities have said they’re holding out hope that a new funding formula, contained in Senate Bill 13 and House Bill 1581, will alleviate some financial burden.
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