NC State's Board of Trustees is weighing a 3% tuition increase for in-state undergraduates entering in fall 2027, the second consecutive year the Raleigh university has sought such a hike. The university is also seeking a 3% increase for nonresident undergraduates, along with higher fees for student media, student center repairs and renovation, dining, and housing.
The request comes after the UNC System Board of Governors agreed to let its schools propose in-state tuition increases of up to 3% for a second year running, according to WRAL, whose reporter Brian Murphy covered the proposal. As the News & Observer reported in September, the system board plans to review and vote on all campus proposals this winter, with any approved increases applying only to students entering in the 2027-28 school year.
NC State's board materials project the additional revenue will slightly exceed $4.5 million, and state that the money would support the quality and accessibility of the educational experience and fund faculty promotional increases. The NC State Board of Trustees meets Thursday and Friday this week to take up the proposal.
Last Year's Increase Still Locked In for Current Students
NC State already raised in-state undergraduate tuition by 3% for students entering in fall 2026, part of a systemwide shift that ended a nine-year freeze on in-state tuition dating back to 2017. That earlier increase added $196 in tuition for incoming in-state students and $945 for incoming out-of-state undergraduates, per a WRAL report on the November 2025 vote. Current undergraduates will not see tuition increases, since NC State's fixed-tuition program locks in the rate a student pays when they first enroll — meaning students who started in fall 2026 will not face a second increase.
By fall 2026, that first round of increases had pushed NC State's in-state undergraduate tuition to $6,731, according to the News & Observer. Systemwide, the average resident undergraduate tuition rose from $4,684 to $4,809, an increase capped at 3% and averaging $125 per student, the University of North Carolina System said in a statement reported by northcarolina.edu. Combined annual tuition and fees are now averaging $7,644 across the 12 UNC System universities that are not designated NC Promise schools, per the same statement.
UNC-Chapel Hill Pursues a Different Path This Week
Unlike NC State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is not seeking an in-state undergraduate tuition increase this week. Instead, UNC-Chapel Hill is seeking a 10% increase for out-of-state undergraduate tuition, which would push annual tuition and fees for nonresident undergraduates above $54,000 if approved. The university is also seeking a fee increase for its student recreation and wellness center, proposing a reduction in its student dining debt service fee, and proposing increases for housing and dining plans. The UNC Board of Trustees meets Wednesday and Thursday this week to consider those requests.
UNC-Chapel Hill had already raised tuition 3% for incoming in-state undergraduates in fall 2026, bringing in-state undergraduate tuition to $7,230, a 3% increase, according to the News & Observer. That timeline sits awkwardly against an earlier account from WUNC, which reported that in November 2025, UNC-Chapel Hill's Budget and Finance Committee voted to reject a proposed 3% resident undergraduate tuition increase for the incoming 2026 class, with all but one member opposed. The same WUNC report said the committee unanimously voted to raise out-of-state undergraduate tuition by 10% that year. The dossier does not reconcile how a rejected in-state proposal and a later-reported 3% in-state increase for fall 2026 both came to be described in subsequent coverage, and this article does not attempt to resolve that discrepancy.
System-Wide Debt Figures Frame the Debate
UNC System officials have pointed to borrowing trends as part of the broader case for its tuition approach. The system reported that the share of UNC System graduates holding student-loan debt fell from 62% in 2017 to 48% in 2025, and that the amount students borrowed to pay for college dropped 35% between 2018 and 2025, according to the earlier northcarolina.edu statement. The system also said inflation-adjusted, real-dollar costs for in-state undergraduates fell by more than $2,000 between 2016 and 2026, per the News & Observer's September report.
UNC-Chapel Hill has separately begun its annual process to review tuition and student fees for the 2027-28 academic year, according to UNC-Chapel Hill's budget office. That review calendar called for proposed tuition and fee rates to be presented to the university's Board of Trustees on Nov. 11-12. With both the NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill boards meeting within days of each other this week, the outcomes will shape what students and families across the state pay starting in fall 2027.
