MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The WVU Board of Governors approved a balanced $1.3 billion operating budget that includes a tuition and fee increase during its meeting Friday in Morgantown.
New WVU Chief Financial Officer Chris Kabourek told BOG members students and families have higher expectations from institutions in an economy of increasing costs. He said university must continue working to improve the quality of the product they provide in order to increase enrollment.
“Students and families are obviously making a major investment when they choose WVU, and our responsibility is to make sure that investment is worth it,” Kabourek said. “Whether that’s through the strong academic programs, student support, quality faculty, facilities or technology.”
Undergraduate in-state students will pay about 3.3 percent more than last year ($156 per semester) while the BOG approved a 5.9 percent tuition increase ($912 per semester) for out of state students. For graduate students, tuition will increase by $180 per semester for resident students and $945 per semester for non-resident students.
Kabourek told the BOG WVU remains much cheaper than the average D-1 school in the country, and the network of scholarships and student support helps nearly half of students graduate debt-free.
“Our tuition is 34 percent less than the average of public universities across the country, and 44 percent of our students in 2025 graduated with zero federal student debt,” Kabourek said.
There’s only one fee increase for the upcoming year: the Mountaineer Athletic Advantage fee will double from $125 to $250 per semester.
“I realize that is a meaningful increase for students and their families, and we attempted to mitigate that impact by holding all other fees flat this year,” Kabourek said. “So, there will be no other increases in any other fees for FY ’27.”
At WVU Potomac State College in Keyser and WVU Institute of Technology in Beckley, tuition will increase by $108 and fees will go by $144 per semester for resident students. Tuition for non-residents increases by $468, and fees escalate to $672. Metro rates at Potomac State College will rise by $312 per semester, and at WVU Tech the rate increases by $396 per semester.
“The days of higher education thinking we can build it and they will come are over, and we’re starting to see that across the country,” Kabourek said. “We have to be more capitalistic in our thinking, we have to be more accountable where we invest resources, and we have to be very strategic about our pricing.”