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MADISON, WI (WSAU) – Students across the UW education system are expected to see an increase in college tuition for the fourth straight year, owing to rising costs and the most recent inflation numbers.
According to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the UW system will vote this Thursday on a 2% tuition increase for in-state undergraduates in 2026–2027, and student fees are projected to climb by 1.6% to 4.4%.
For reference, the proposal would raise the cost of attendance, tuition, and fees at UW-Stevens Point by $215 to $9,692; at UW-Eau Claire by $200 to $10,268; and at UW-Green Bay by $148 to $9,133.
The UW system has justified these price increases by claiming that they will increase revenue by $21.9 million and are lower than the rate of inflation, assisting the system in addressing rising educational costs, despite critics pointing out that the UW system received $256 million from the 2025 state budget.
The board previously increased in-state undergraduate tuition by approximately 5% in the 2023–2024 academic year, 3.75% in 2024–2025, and 5% in 2025–2026.
On Tuesday, Republican Congressman and Wisconsin Governor candidate Tom Tiffany addressed the proposed increases in a post on X, stating that if elected, he would “implement a tuition freeze and restore accountability to our universities.” State Senator Patrick Testin likewise said in an X post that he is “beyond frustrated” by the proposed increases after members of the UW System Board appeared before the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges in April, stating that they had no plans to raise costs in the near future.
Republican state legislators have been skeptical of the university system’s continuous tuition increases since 2013, when an audit found that the UW system had hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent tuition funds despite hiking tuition by 5.5% for six years in a row. They also cite data indicating that the UW Foundation manages an endowment worth roughly $4.5 billion and long-term investment assets that benefit the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the larger UW System.
These projected increases come as EducationDynamics’ 2025 Landscape of Higher Education analysis discovered that 29% of Americans believe the cost of education is unreasonable, and a 2025 Pew A study discovered that male college attendance has plummeted to all-time lows, with males now accounting for only 41-42% of all college students in the United States, a significant decline from previous decades, raising concerns about a looming “Enrollment Cliff,” which experts project will result in a 13% drop in college attendance by 2041.
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