Malvern, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — June 5, 2025 — The ASU System Board of Trustees unanimously approved a tuition and fees increase for Arkansas State University and other schools in its system for the 2025-26 school year on Thursday.

The tuition increase for all schools in the ASU System is listed below:

  • A-State – 3.3%
  • ASU Newport – 3.6%
  • ASU Mid-South – 1.9%
  • ASU Beebe – 2.9%
  • ASU Mountain Home – 1.4%
  • ASU Three Rivers – 5.1%
  • Henderson State University – 2.5%

The 3.3% increase for A-State brings tuition and fees to $10,430 annually, compared to $10,100 in 2024. This number is for a full-time, in-state undergraduate student, who is defined as a student taking 15 hours per semester, or 30 hours annually.

During the meeting, held at ASU Three Rivers in Malvern, ASU System president Brendan Kelly said the board and the various chancellors were “incredibly sensitive” to diversifying their revenue streams and decreasing costs for students.

“You’ll find that the changes in tuition and fees offer some simplification, and that’s something that will continue to try to evolve. Additionally, these are modest increases that follow right along with the Consumer Price Index and are certainly in line, often lower than, other institutions in the state who are making similar changes,” Kelly said.

The board also approved tuition and fees costs for A-State’s upcoming College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), which university officials broke ground on in March. In-state students will pay $17,250 per semester, while out-of-state students will pay $27,250. The CVM will open in fall 2026.

In other business, the board approved capital projects budgets for all campuses. At A-State, this includes the CVM, the Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation, as well as the pavilion and the on-campus Chick-fil-A renovations. It also budgets for any “major equipment and IT-related purchases.” This total budget for A-State is $59,846,508.

The board approved the deferred maintenance budgets for all campuses. The board set aside $2.5 million for maintenance at A-State, which includes renovating various parking lots, flooring, student housing improvements and more.

The board approved combining A-State’s Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation with its Department of Clinical Lab Sciences. It is now called the Department of Medical Laboratory and Radiation Sciences. This does not affect financial resources for either department.

“This is a regular review by Dr. [Todd] Shields [A-State chancellor] and [A-State provost Dr. Calvin] White, to look at the academic enterprise at the institution and see where there is a more efficient use of resources, rather than just sitting and looking at the structure the way it was presented to them,” Kelly said.

The board also approved establishing 425 provisional positions at A-State and allowing certain A-State employees to conduct private camps on campus.

“Private camps are a regular course of business during the summer,” Kelly said. “Those are often run by university employees, coaches who hold elite camps and it is a great way to generate revenue for those programs and a standard way of doing business across higher education.”

The next Board of Trustees meeting is at 10 a.m. on Sept. 12 on the A-State campus.