Nevada higher ed leaders approve hefty tuition hike for public colleges

Nevada higher education officials voted Friday to raise tuition and fees by 12% for public four-year institutions and 9% for two-year colleges. 

The 8-5 vote by the Nevada System of Higher Education’s governing board sets up gradual increases to take place over three years, starting with a 3% hike in the 2026-27 academic year at four-year institutions and a 2% increase at two-year colleges. 

The price hikes are meant to fill a fiscal hole in the coming years caused by rising costs and the pending expiration of more than $57 million in state bridge funding originally passed in 2025. Chancellor Matt McNair and presidents of the system’s colleges said in a briefing ahead of Friday’s meeting that, without revenue increases to account for the lapsed public funding, some 317 jobs across the system were potentially at risk. 

The tuition increases would generate an estimated $49.3 million in annual revenue, more than covering a projected $41.4 million systemwide shortfall in fiscal 2029.

For fiscal 2028, the system had faced a $27.1 million hole, including funding gaps of over $11 million at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno. 

When McNair and system presidents made the case for tuition increases, they pointed to rising institutional costs. Those include a “significant deferred maintenance backlog,” as well other expenses such as student support services, technology infrastructure, cybersecurity, and a 1% merit increase for faculty salaries, their briefing said. 

Students at the meeting Friday spoke out against the price increases. 

“We do not want a cheap education,” UNLV Student Body President Kelechi Odunze said, according to a local NBC affiliate. “But the value of education begins with reinvestment in students, not asking them to absorb the cost of systemic failures.”

Even with the increases, Nevada’s public universities would be cheaper by thousands of dollars annually compared to the average price of their peers in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, NSHE college leaders said in their briefing. 

Under the proposal passed last week, registration fees at UNLV and UNR will increase by roughly $1,200 annually by fiscal 2029 for undergraduates taking 30 credits and graduate students taking 24 credits.