Montgomery's Faulkner University won't be raising tuition for students enrolling in fall 2023.
Faulkner is a private accredited Christian university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. Its primary campus is located on the Atlanta Highway in Montgomery, but it has satellite campuses in Mobile, Huntsville and Birmingham.
Faulkner contains one of five accredited law schools in the state, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, which gained provisional approval from the American Bar Association in June 2006.
Faulkner President Mitch Henry said that the decision to avoid raising tuition for traditional students is due to the current poor economy.
"As today's families struggle financially, we want to ease their burden and provide some relief as they look to enroll their graduating seniors into higher education," Henry said. "... We understand the importance of a higher Christian education for your sons and daughters, so while many institutions and businesses raise prices and raise rates, we will implement a freeze on our traditional tuition."
Traditional tuition for Faulkner students is now $10,965 per semester for students taking 12 to 16 hours in the fall and spring semesters. It is $12,250 per semester for students taking 17 to 19 hours. Summer tuition is $350 per semester hour, and military students can attend for $250 per semester hour. Other fees also apply.
Though Faulkner has decided to cap tuition for the fall, that's not the same for other, if not most, schools in the state.
Auburn University has already approved a 3% tuition increase for the 2023-2024 school year after its board approved the university's largest budget to date of $1.593 billion for 2023. This is equivalent to the 3% tuition increase established for the 2022-2023 school year.
According to reports, the University of South Alabama approved a plan in June to raise tuition over the next two years, which would equate to a $552 increase for in-state students and an increase exceeding $1,000 for out-of-state students.
Some universities don't decide whether to raise fall tuition until the spring and summer semesters of that calendar year.
According to reports, the University of North Alabama Board of Trustees voted in June to raise tuition by $20 per credit hour for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Last year, the University of Alabama increased tuition by 3% for in-state students and 4% for out-of-state students.
Sanford University, a private Baptist school in Birmingham, typically posts its tuition and fees for the fall semester in July of that year. Between the 2021-2022 and the 2022-2023 school years, tuition for full-time students increased by 4%.
Birmingham-Southern, a private Methodist school in Birmingham currently facing a financial crisis, increased tuition by over 5% before the 2022-2023 school year.
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