On January 23, 2025, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees voted to approve a tuition increase for the 2025/2026 academic year. This decision will affect students across all three campuses but only applies to newly incoming undergraduates.
For the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS), the tuition hike will be set at 2%, aligning with the general increase for the Chicago campus, while the Urbana-Champaign campus will see a slightly higher 2.2% increase.
Blake Wood, Director of Media Strategy at UIS, addressed the reasons behind the increase. “The increase is necessary to help us meet rising costs driven by inflation,” Wood explained.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has increased by 22% since January 2020, reflecting the broader economic challenges faced by many institutions. Wood also pointed out that this increase follows a trend of tuition freezes in seven of the last 10 years, highlighting UIS’s commitment to balancing affordability with the need for financial sustainability.
“At UIS, we strive to keep education affordable while ensuring that we provide a high-quality experience for our students,” Wood added. “This increase is modest and helps us continue to offer the excellent services and programs that our students rely on.”
While tuition costs are rising, UIS remains committed to helping students navigate these increases through robust financial aid offerings. For new incoming students, UIS continues to offer a variety of financial aid options, including the Prairie Promise program. This initiative fully covers the cost of tuition and fees for Illinois residents who are first-time, first-year undergraduate students enrolled in on-campus degree programs.
“UIS is proud to offer the Prairie Promise program, which helps ensure that a quality education remains accessible to Illinois residents,” said Wood. In addition to Prairie Promise, UIS students can benefit from other forms of financial support, including MAP grants, Transfer Scholarships, and institutional financial aid. According to UIS, the University of Illinois System provides approximately $298 million annually in financial aid to undergraduate students.
Despite these efforts, the tuition increase has sparked some concern among students, many of whom are curious about how the additional revenue will be used.
UIS graduate student enrolled in the Public History track, Shawn Oderio, had strong opinions on this tuition increase, even though the decision will not directly affect him. He noted that charging incoming students more does not seem to translate to tangible differences in the quality of education or campus amenities. “Tuition keeps going up, but it doesn’t always feel like there are noticeable improvements for students.”
Oderio continued, “We’re still paying fees for things like parking, and it’s frustrating. If tuition is going up, I want to see where that money is going.”
Oderio called on the University to justify its use of funds, “What I’m looking for is more transparency about how this additional money is being allocated. If we’re paying more, the least the administration can do is show us where it’s going.”
The University of Illinois System operates with a budget of $8.3 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, which supports the three campuses, the hospital network, and system-wide programs.
Students seeking more details on how tuition revenue is being allocated or how financial aid programs work can find more information through the University of Illinois System’s budget summaries and requests.
