It’s official: Penn State freezing tuition

Penn State trustees made it official Friday: For just the second time in more than 50 years, there will be no tuition hike for in-state students at the university's flagship campus this year.

Tuition rates for all in-state, undergraduate students would remain unchanged for the 2018-19 academic year. At University Park, annual tuition for full-time, freshmen and sophomores who reside in Pennsylvania will be $17,416, same as the 2017-18 school year. Out-of-state students, who are 30 percent of the student body, will see a 3.54 percent tuition hike, to $33,800 from $32,644.

There will be a 3.3 percent rise — a $9 increase — in the student activity and facilities fee at the main campus.

Tuition at eight of Penn State's 19 campuses — Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, and Wilkes-Barre — have seen no tuition rise for several years running, and that streak will continue.

The tuition freeze, proposed by university president Eric Barron, was adopted by the full board of trustees Friday and follows the Pennsylvania legislature's increasing Penn State's state funding by 3 percent, giving the university $7.5 million more in state aid. Schools in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education received a 3.3 percent boost in funding.

"Access and affordability are top priorities at Penn State," Barron said in a statement. "We must do all that we can to keep the door to a Penn State education open to and within financial reach of the best and brightest students across the Commonwealth. Our increased state support and this tuition freeze is a tangible example of how the University's land-grant partnership with the Commonwealth directly impacts Pennsylvania citizens."

The school last froze tuition systemwide in 2015-16.