oldbadger..I would suspect the UW systems's budget has increased a great deal too over the last few years so if the state gave them the same amount of money each year that amount would be a lower percentage of their budget each year. Doesn't mean the state has givennUW less money but rather UW has increased their budget.

You can complain about the rise of tution but let us look at some facts.
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In the 2002-03 year the state supported the University budget by 30.9%. In 2010-2011 the state supported the University budget by 17.92%.
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Students are now supporting more of the cost. for the reason above. In 2002-2003 the state supported 61% of the student cost. Now the student pays 70% of the cost.
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The number of tudents graduating from UW has increased from 28,894 in 2002-2003 to 34,600 in 2010-2011.
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The state invests about $1billion into the university system. The economic impact is $10 billion annually. Pretty good investment for the taxpayer.
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If you want to complain about the tution increase then just consider who you voted for.

donnaw
I agree. It seems that there are many areas that could be trimmed to keep the tuition from increasing so much.

As far as the "flexible" programs, this sounds like a good idea, but I have not read the details.

The University of Wisconsin (and all schools) need to be more accountable, though.

Another big reason tuitions keep going up is the massive increase in college administrators. I read somewhere there has been a 60% increase over the last 15 years. This % of increase is compared to the hiring of additional tenured professors. It seems colleges have become very top heavy and more costly.

westorbust - Tuition costs go up because states keep cutting funding to Universites. Just like a simple budget, you either cut programs at the Universities or you raise Tuition.

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image...

College!