PNW will be issuing a three-tier tuition structure and banded tuition starting in Fall 2018 in response to low retention and the budget deficit.

Retention rate and enrollment decline are the causes of the budget deficit. In October 2017, enrollment declined by 4.5 percent. In February 2018, enrollment declined by 3.9 percent, but Stephen Turner, vice chancellor for Finance and Administration, said the university is in good shape and will be fine for next year.

Carmen Panlilio, vice chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, said new students are only 25 percent of total enrollment.

“Even if you increase new students, if retention doesn’t increase there won’t be that much of an impact,” Panlilio said.

The three-tiers will include separate rates for in-state students, domestic non-resident students and international non-resident students. The new domestic non-resident rate is discounted to 150 percent of in-state tuition. This discounted rate will be available for new non-resident transfer students and first-year students in 2018-19. Tuition overall will rise 1.4 percent.

The university will also be adding banded tuition, which gives a flat-rate fee for students who take 12 to 18 credit hours.

“There will be different solutions. The banded tuition and the three-tier structure shows how we are different and we approach things statistically,” Turner said.

Banded tuition will be more expensive than 2017-18 for students who take 12 credit hours. The new rate for 12 credit hours for in-state students is approximately $731.16 more expensive than the 2017-18 rate. For 15 credit hours, banded tuition will be comparable to rates in 2017-18 and have the same per credit hour rate as for part-time students. The rate for 18 credit hours will be at a discount, which is an approximate $636.66 savings for in-state students from the 2017-18 rate.

This does not include composite fees, which are required student fees to support technology, repair and maintenance of classes, student activities, intramurals, intercollegiate athletics, the fitness center, maintenance of parking facilities and debt service. Composite fees for part-time students will be $25.10 per credit hour, and for banded tuition will be $376.50 per semester.

Panlilio and Tara Sullivan, executive director of Academic Success and Transition, encourages students to take 15 credit hours per semester.

Sullivan said students who take 15 credit hours have higher GPAs and have higher retention rates.