The Minnesota State system for higher education recently approved a tuition increase across its 33 schools. Southwest Minnesota State University and Minnesota West Community and Technical College will both experience tuition increases, but at a rate lower than the system’s average.

The Minnesota State Board of Trustees approved the tuition increase on June 18 with a range of 4 to 8% increases, but will average a 4.5% hike for colleges, and 6.5% for universities.

SMSU’s tuition for the 2025-26 school year will see a 6% increase, while MNWest will have a 4% increase.

According to the system’s Fiscal Year 2026 Operating Budget meeting report on June 18, the tuition increase is “due to negative state economic forecasts,” and “less state support.”

State appropriation and tuition are the primary sources of revenue for institutions, detailed in the report. The FY2026 budget includes $879 million in state appropriation, which is a 4.8% decrease from last year’s fiscal budget, or about $43 million less. This serves as a driving cause for the increased tuition rates.

SMSU’s undergraduate 6% increase equates to $530.40 more each year, or $265.20 per semester, Associate Vice President of Advancement Nathan Polfliet detailed.

“We did have some fees that increased also, like student fees. If you look at tuition and fees all together, the total increase for a student would be $558.06 per year, which is $279.03 per semester,” Polfliet said. “That tuition increases 6%, but when you count the fees and everything, it’s actually a 5.4% increase … Because the fee increases were smaller.”

SMSU’s graduate tuition will increase 3.5%, which is $18.13 more per credit.

The university was involved in talking with student groups for input and feedback on the proposed changes in tuition.

“I do know that there were student groups that were involved in understanding what the impact would be, and things like that,” Polfliet said. “The student groups that were involved with this were OK with the tuition increase.”

Financially, the university will remain in good standing with the recent enrollment successes and if projections stay on path.

“The total disbursement that we’re getting from the legislature is down 5.6%, and basically what it means is now we’re relying more on tuition and other stuff. We’re actually in a pretty good situation, because our enrollment has been increasing,” Polfliet said. “We’re projecting another increase for this fall … The closer we get to August, the more set in stone that is, but we’re projecting that we’ll have another increase. As long as everything stays in line with what we’re projecting, we’ll be in pretty good shape with our budget.”

SMSU had an overall 14.9% headcount enrollment increase to start the 2024-25 school year, and saw a 17.8% spring semester increase from the previous year.

For MNWest, its 4% tuition hike, the lowest rate of the system-wide increases, amounts to $7.80 more per credit, or $234 a year for a full-time student that takes 30 credits. The college also raised just one student fee by 50 cents a credit.

“Our college is financially sound. We are very strong, our balance sheet is good,” MNWest Vice President of Finance Diana Fliss said. “It’s still a lot of money for a student … We do try to keep the impact at a minimum.”

MNWest also made it a point to be in contact with its students on the changes.

“When we go talk to our students, which we do as often as we can, but for sure when we start talking about tuition and fees, we do a consultation with them,” Fliss said. “They are [comfortable with the increase]. We have six different student senates, one for each of our five campuses and one for our Luverne Center … They all hear a presentation that I provide that talks about the college, our financial status and possible increases or not increases.”

The college took a look at surrounding area trade schools with the new increase, and still remains in good comparison.

“We’re so close to the South Dakota border, and we’re close to the Iowa border … We took another college that was across the border, and we compared our tuition and fees to their tuition and fees, and we are less expensive,” Fliss said. “If you look just at tuition, we’re more expensive, but their fees are significantly higher than ours. If you look at the total cost of the program, we still offer our students an affordable education.”

MNWest has also seen good enrollment rates, helping the college remain in financial comfortability, as with SMSU.

“This last year, both the fall and the spring semester, I believe we ended up with a little bit more than 9% increase per semester, which is phenomenal,” Fliss said. “I think there’s a great need for the trades currently. I think not only us, but many of the community and technical colleges are seeing increases in enrollment.”

Both SMSU and MNWest were individually mentioned in the system’s budget report as two institutions that have been able to “leverage additional funding for student support and workforce efforts this biennium.”

“(MNWest is) expanding high-demand career and technical programs tailored to its regional needs including expanding diploma offerings in welding and automotive technology,” while “(SMSU is) addressing regional workforce needs by introducing data science and cybersecurity programs as well as continuing the process to offer a master’s in social work program and pre-licensure nursing degree,” the report states.

Minnesota State had a tuition freeze for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years that didn’t see any increases, due to enough funding that was provided by the legislature.

Scholarships

The North Star Promise Scholarship Program, that both SMSU and MNWest partner with, will continue as one financial resource students can explore. The program provides free tuition to Minnesota residents that meet certain income criteria.

Both Fliss and Polfliet acknowledged that SMSU and MNWest continue to find scholarship opportunities.

“We want to do as much as we can to support our students,” Polfliet said, who also credited the SMSU Foundation for providing over $1.4 million in scholarships last year. “We’re always working on new scholarships.”

“We have some agencies that support our students that attend here with various programs,” Fliss added. “Also, our college is affiliated with the Minnesota West Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3), and a lot of donors provide funding to our foundation, and the sole purpose of our foundation is to support our students.”

Recently, Marshall Masonic Delta Lodge #119 and Marshall VFW Post #742 presented scholarships to both SMSU and MNWest, to help support local higher education. The scholarships plan to provide funding annually and support two students a year.