News of the Day June 5, 2026
UW Board of Regents Approve 4th Tuition Increase in 4 years

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved a plan on Thursday to increase tuition across the state’s public university system for the fourth time in as many years.

The Board of Regents voted 15-1 to approve the proposal. It will raise in-state undergraduate tuition by 2 percent and student fees by an average of 3.5 percent for the upcoming school year.

Regent Timothy Nixon voted against the increase, saying he felt raising tuition would burden students and parents with higher costs.

He also said he worried it could come back to bite the university system in future state budget cycles.

“The only thing that the people who control the checkbook and the people that vote for the people that control the checkbook will hear is that we’re increasing tuition four years in a row,” Nixon said at the finance committee meeting. “I think this $22 million will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars in the budget cycle. I don’t think it’s worth it.”

Republicans at the state Capitol have already taken issue with the proposal.

The presumptive GOP nominee for governor, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, was critical of the university system on social media Tuesday, saying he would implement a tuition freeze if elected.

Republican former Gov. Scott Walker implemented a tuition freeze in 2013, which kept in-state tuition for undergraduates flat. It ended in 2023.