2025-2026 Tuition Increase

The new rates will be effective for the Fall 2025 semester.

The increase, which will generate approximately $8 million, will be entirely used to help fund a merit-based salary increase for eligible faculty, staff, qualifying graduate assistants, and postdoctoral scholars, which will cost $15 million campus-wide. Maintaining a competitive compensation for our faculty and staff lies at the core of the excellence we owe to our students.

As a public university, the University of Oklahoma places a strong emphasis on balancing academic excellence with affordability and access.

In setting tuition, we abide by two foundational principles:

• First: We are in a marketplace competing against other flagship universities to be both excellent and affordable.
  • Higher education is a competitive business. Students, faculty, and staff all have myriad market choices.
  • To be great, a university must be able to attract and retain the best students and faculty in the face of competitive market pressures.
  • To attract and retain the very best students and faculty, we must make strategic investments that advance OU’s excellence.
• Second: Every student with the talent and drive to succeed should have access to an OU education.

Implementing this tuition and mandatory fee increase will provide a stable funding source to support our strategic priorities and forward momentum for years to come.

State Support Comparisons
Prior to recent increases in 2022, state appropriations were below 1999 levels, before adjusting for inflation. OU’s FY 2025 appropriation is consistent with FY 2007 funding levels. While much improved from pre-2022 levels, OU’s funding lags behind other public peers, especially AAU-aspirational peers.

See the chart³ below for a comparison to other public universities. There is a $96 million gap between OU’s per student funding level and the median. Even after adjusting for appropriation increases received in FY 2024 and FY 2025, there would still be an $82 million gap between OU and the median.

³ Source: IPEDS (FY 2023, most recent available data)

Over the last six years, we’ve upheld our promise to offer a world-class education at a great value, while also funding strategic priorities that directly correlate to the overarching goals of our Strategic Plan. Examples on the Norman campus include:

Key Research Investments to Drive our Pursuit of AAU Status:

• Increasing sponsored research expenditures to record levels at OU, positioning us as the fourth-fastest-growing research institution in the country

Competitive Compensation:

• Merit-based salary increases for eligible faculty and staff to help the university recruit and retain top talent in a competitive environment

Strategic Faculty Hiring:

• Authorized 91 new regular faculty positions, including 42 for Engineering 
• Over last five years, full-time instructional faculty have grown 152, or 12%

Staffing Investments to Serve Students:

• Nearly doubled Career Center staff, to provide best-in-class student support and job placement focus
• Implemented career growth pathway for academic advisors and student recruiters

Graduate Student Recruitment:

• Authorized a 63% increase to graduate assistant stipends, effective Fall 2024

Improvements to the Student Experience:

• Expanding student opportunity through increased access to study abroad, undergraduate research, and high-impact learning experiences
• Targeting funding to sustain low-cost and free services, and to provide additional support for student-centric services, such as the University Counseling Center, OU Food Pantry, and SafeRide

OU realizes that tuition increases have a real impact on students and families. We have continuously prioritized ensuring an OU education remains affordable and accessible, especially for those with the greatest need. While college tuition has risen sharply nationwide, a degree from OU is more affordable today than it was six years ago.

• In the last five years...
  • Need-based aid has grown more than 48% (institutional aid, external awards, and tuition waivers combined)
  • The annual amount of scholarships awarded to resident undergraduate students has increased 41%
  • On average, full-time resident undergraduates receive over $3,200 in scholarships annually
  • Tuition discount rates provided to resident freshmen have risen 19 percentage points, from 36% in FY 2019 to 55% in FY 2025
  • These efforts are making a real difference – the actual amount the average resident freshman must pay has declined 27% over the last six years.
• OU’s No. 1 fundraising priority is to substantially increase the availability of need-based aid so that students who have the ability to succeed and excel also have the opportunity. Need-based aid is a major component of OU’s $2 billion fundraising campaign, which designates $500 million toward scholarships and student support.
• ·To help eliminate unnecessary barriers to college access and completion, OU established the Student Financial Center, a one-stop shop for financial aid help, as well as the MidFirst Bank MoneyCoach program, which advises on financial planning, ensuring our students have resources to make OU attainable.
• Consistent with our goal of accessibility and affordability, residents with the greatest financial need receive the largest amount of assistance. Residents who qualify for the OU’s Crimson Commitment program, which leverages the state’s Oklahoma Promise program, receive waivers, scholarships, and grants in excess of their tuition and fee cost.
  • On average, Crimson Commitment freshmen receive $4,051 back from OU that can be used to cover housing, food, books, and other living costs. These students, on average, have no out-of-pocket costs for tuition and average fees.
  • For academic year 2024-25, 13% of all undergraduate residents qualified for Crimson Commitment funding. Pell Grant recipients are at a record high.
• Additionally, over this time period, all resident income brackets benefited from additional aid awarding. While the greatest benefits accrued to those with the lowest incomes, all resident undergraduates experienced a decrease in net tuition and fee cost since FY20.

⁴ The decrease for the $60k to $100k income bracket has primarily been driven by an increase of Pell-eligible students in this income bracket. From Fall 2023 to Fall 2024, the number of Pell-eligible students in this bracket increased from 103 to 156.

We always want to guarantee that our operations are efficient and that we are not wasteful in our spending. Since FY 2018, OU has identified and saved approximately $150 million annually from our Norman campus operating budget.

One measure to help monitor how well a university allocates its resources to academic, research, and student priorities is to examine its overhead costs (i.e., costs that do not directly support students and faculty, but are still critical to a functioning university (e.g., HR, IT, Finance, Legal, etc.))

OU’s spend on overhead costs is low in comparison to other public universities within major athletic conferences. The graph⁵ below compares OU, on a per student basis, to all other public universities in major athletic conferences. Of the universities presented, OU has the 10^th lowest overhead cost per student. At the median, OU would spend $43 million more than it currently spends to support institutional/overhead activities. Universities that are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) have their bars shaded green.

⁵ Source: FY 2023 audited financial statements and the Department of Education IPEDS database

For the most recent reporting period, 56% of OU undergraduates graduated with no debt⁶ (consistent with prior years), compared to 45% at four-year public universities nationwide. Those that did graduate with debt reported $31,694 in debt. These figures and other outcome metrics compare well with public SEC and Big 12 institutions. Using the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard data and IPEDS database shows:

⁶ Common Data Set: https://www.ou.edu/irr/other-reports

⁷ Data from the College Scorecard only examines federal loan data and excludes Parent Plus loans. As such debt and loan data will not reconcile to the official debt and loan data the University publicly reports and is listed above the OU/SEC/Big12 table.

⁸ Data from College of Education IPEDS database (2022 – most recent)

Using the most recent data published, OU’s student outcome data is the best of any higher ed institution in the state of Oklahoma, public or private:

• OU’s first-year retention rate: 90%
• OU’s 6-year graduation rate: 76%
• Median earnings of OU graduates: $63,126

Tuition and mandatory fees will increase by 3% for graduate students. However, for several years, OU has been making progress toward increasing support for graduate education. In 2018, OU launched a multi-year initiative to lower fees for graduate assistants (GAs) on the Norman campus, saving these students $3,850 per year compared to seven years ago – bringing down fees to just over $1,000 annually, which is the public AAU average. OU implemented a 63% increase to graduate assistant stipend minimums, effective July 1, 2024.

We understand this decision has real impacts; that’s why a core team of OU administrators engaged student leaders in extensive conversation, holding Fall and Spring meetings to better understand the effects of a tuition and fee increase on students.

Our professionals in the Student Financial Center stand ready to help you as they seek financial aid and create a plan to fund the upcoming year.