Since University President Michael Lovell has been at Marquette, tuition has been raised by 39.4%.
Every year since Lovell became president in 2014, either tuition or room and board, sometimes both, has increased annually. Tuition has always increased except for 2021-22, when just room and board increased by 3.5%.
Before Lovell took office in 2014, Marquette’s undergraduate tuition was $34,200. Today, the 2022-23 academic year, is $45,86o. This year was a 2% increase from the 2021-22 academic year and it will continue to increase next year.
For the 2023-2024 academic year, undergraduate tuition will increase by 4% to $47,690. Room and board is also increasing by 4%, an average of $7,621.60 per semester and $15,243.20 for the academic year.
The average increase in tuition from 2014 to 2023-24 is 3.4%.
“However, over that same time, financial aid rates increased at a much greater pace, resulting in net tuition per first-year students being actually lower over that same time period,” university spokesperson Kevin Conway said in an email.
In comparison, Creighton University, a Jesuit school and a part of the Big East conference, raised its tuition by 2.5% to $43,684 in 2022. Although this was 0.5% greater than Marquette’s tuition development in 2022-23, Creighton’s tuition was $2,176 cheaper. Creighton also raised its room and board rate by 2.5% that year.
Despite Creighton’s increase, the university officials said that they “diligently strive” to decrease tuition and fee growth as they develop their university.
Marquette is also raising the student wellness and recreation fee to $150. The higher rate will help fund the new wellness and recreation facility and its programs that will take over the Recreational Center by 2024.
“We must constantly balance the economic realities that currently impact higher education while continuing to do our best to mitigate costs to students in this changing landscape,” the university said in a statement.
Ava Hart, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she doesn’t see these tuition increases ending anytime soon.
“Especially if student debt relief goes through, I think a lot of universities are going to see that as a way of ‘oh you have student debt relief, we can just charge you more,’ so no I don’t see it ending anytime soon,” Hart said.
Natalia Perez, a senior in the College of Health Sciences, also doesn’t see Marquette stopping these tuition increases.
“I feel like college is just a business. They just want to get our money. Unfortunately, they don’t really care about the whole person,” Perez said.
Both Hart and Perez said they wished there was more transparency when it came to why Marquette needs to increase tuition, and what their money is going towards exactly.
Part of the reason that room and board is increasing the university said is due to improvements to dining hall facilities, increasing costs of operations, food and more.
Perez said she wishes Marquette took into consideration that students and families have other costs they have to pay for.
“Honestly why are they increasing tuition? What’s the whole point? Where’s that money going towards? And I feel that’s something that we should know,” Perez said.
This story was written by Julia Abuzzahab. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @juliaabuz
