University of the Ozarks officials have announced that the university will not raise the cost of tuition, fees and room for the 2015-16 academic year. It is the second consecutive year the university's Board of Trustees has chosen not to increase tuition and other fees for students.
"University of the Ozarks is committed to economic diversity and to providing affordable private education," said U of O President Richard L. Dunsworth. "We are aware of the financial challenges that our students and their families face and we are determined to make an Ozarks education as accessible as possible for both current and future students."
Tuition will remain at $23,750 a year and room and fees at $3,200 and $690, respectively, for the second straight year. There will be a $100 increase in the food plan to $3,900, for a total cost of attendance at $31,550. That amount is well below the average of $42,419 for private institutions in the United States, according to The College Board’s Trends in College Pricing 2014.
According to The College Board, the national 2014 average tuition increase was 3.7 percent for private non-profit colleges and 2.7 percent for public universities.
More than 95 percent of students at Ozarks receive some form of financial aid, which includes institutional, state and federal scholarships and grants as well as student loans and federal work study. The university awards more than $7 million annually in institutional funds to student scholarships.
"A college education is one of the best investments a family can make and we want to do everything we can to help make that a reality," Dunsworth said.
In the 2015 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, U of O was ranked fifth in the South Region in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category. It is the 15th time in the last 16 years that the university has been ranked in the top five in the value category, which evaluates the cost of attending a college or university relative to the quality of the institution.
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