Atlanta — August 9, 2006

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) approved today the plan for providing guaranteed tuition to new transfer students, linking the tuition rate these students pay to the year they entered the University System.

This wraps up the final detail of the Guaranteed Tuition Plan the regents approved in June, which begins this fall for new students. The policy offers new freshmen entering four-year USG institutions a fixed tuition rate for the next four years and new freshmen at two-year institutions a fixed rate for three years.

Today, board members approved the Guaranteed Tuition Task Force’s proposal to address fair treatment of transfer students. After entering this fall, if a student subsequently transfers to another USG college or university during the next four years, he or she will pay the guaranteed tuition rate the new institution was charging at the time the student entered the System. However, this fixed rate only will remain in effect until the student has been enrolled in the University System for four years. The policy will take effect with the Spring 2007 semester.

“This revised tuition policy treats transfer students equally with non-transfer students and won’t influence them to transfer or not transfer,” said Vice Chancellor for Business and Fiscal Affairs William Bowes, who chaired the Guaranteed Tuition Task Force. “Institutions with a large number of transfer students may experience a loss in revenue, since many of these students will be paying rates set in prior years, but we believe these losses can be addressed through budget allocations, adjustments in annual tuition rates or both.”

Effective Spring 2007, students who transfer from non-USG colleges and universities also will be charged the guaranteed tuition rate effective the year they transfer, according to the policy revisions approved today. However, this rate will remain fixed for only two years, defined as six consecutive semesters, Bowes said.

The new Guaranteed Tuition Plan creates a financial incentive to spur more students to graduate within four years, thus freeing up space for more new students.

Each year, the Board of Regents will approve a new tuition rate for the entering class, to be guaranteed for that class for four years (12 consecutive semesters) at the USG’s four-year institutions and three years (nine consecutive semesters) at the two-year colleges. In June, the Board of Regents decided that students who do not graduate in four years (or three years at the two-year colleges) will pay the guaranteed rate in effect for new USG students at the time the original guarantee expires.

This new tuition policy applies to degree-seeking undergraduate students only, and does not include mandatory fees or expenses for room and board.

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