{"id":9304,"date":"2026-04-23T11:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=9304"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:48:33","slug":"is-centre-ripping-students-off-5-2-tuition-increase-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/is-centre-ripping-students-off-5-2-tuition-increase-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Centre Ripping Students Off? 5.2% Tuition Increase Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Daniel Covington<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 19th, 2026, Centre students were sent an email stating the cost for the 2026-2027 school year. While many students usually disregard emails like these as just another routine notification, those who read on noticed a staggering change: a 5.2% increase in the total cost at Centre College. This would bring the total cost, which includes tuition, housing, food, and a semester fee, to a staggering grand total of  $73,990. Just four years ago, the tuition for the academic year was over $10,000 cheaper. In previous years, tuition has generally increased by about 3 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Higher Education problem<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuition increase has not only been seen at Centre College\u2014schools big and small are getting more expensive at an alarming rate. Schools have seen increased building upkeep expenses, inflation, and reductions in government grants and subsidies. All of these have challenged school budgets nationwide. Schools either have to reduce spending or bring in more revenue\u2014some are forced to do both. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that compared to inflation from 1980 to 2020, inflation has increased 228%. At the same time, college tuition has increased 1184%. This shows that this is not just a Centre College issue, but an industry-wide issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the students saying?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student A<\/strong>
\u201cWhen I started here (4 years ago), the total cost was around 60k or so. I am alarmed at the increase. What is most anger-inducing is that we are increasing the price and saying we are super affordable in the same email; it feels as if they are playing us for fools. I don’t feel properly taken care of to be paying that much money; there have been so many situations where people feel unsafe, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There has been an incident of racial bias, car theft, and the controversial Harlan statue, and it being anti-Chinese. As a minority person on campus, I don’t feel protected or served. Paying more only puts salt in the wound. I feel that they are using my likeness to get more students to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student B <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tuition increase is fine, but it feels like scholarships are not keeping up. Every year, tuition increases, and I pay more and more. At the same time, if Centre wants us to be more understanding about the price, Centre has to be more understanding about the circumstances and how we sign on for a first year at one price, not to turn into ten thousand dollars more. On top of this, it is hard to work with the Centre aid office. My life as a student includes (housing, ResLife, class availability, AC, gym, student aid, and other offices). I feel that these things are improving or starting to improve, but it seems to be taking forever. If this institution is holding itself to a price such as this, they need facilities, academics, and a high student satisfaction to back it up. If things do not improve while we are paying significantly more, I will leave.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a lot of friends that went to GSP, they loved the scholarship, that scholarship doesn’t rise with the tuition cost, you are not receiving as much aid as you thought you were getting. This puts some people in a bind. I am surprised that academic merit awards are not going up. The amount you are able to pay usually doesn’t change very much. People are frustrated with facilities. Facilities are not getting much better and the ROI just isn’t visible, we have some of the worst dorms. Every year it is such a struggle to get a place that you and your roommates will be comfortable in. So many families are here only because of the cost and what Centre represents. Will the school support students more by opening up scholarships? People are also really struggling to fill requirements, but classes are not available. I have some friends that need a specific lab credit or a BLAP class, and it has taken several semesters of trying to be able to take the class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 2026-27 school year, Centre will be increasing tuition by 5.2 percent. This has alarmed students, as many fear that their scholarships will not keep pace with this jump. Students also feel that it comes at a rough time because they were already unhappy with many aspects of the  Centre, like the quality of housing, class availability, and overall safety of the school. Some even said it feels like a \u201cslap in the face.\u201d With this increase, students have noted that some things have improved: things such as the quality and variety of food in Cowan, and the addition of the 365 Market. This is great, but food variety is only one issue out of many that culminate the student experience at Centre. Many students hope or are on the verge of demanding that the quality of life needs to improve to meet the new price of $73,990. If not, some students say they will have to question whether they should stay or transfer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Daniel Covington On March 19th, 2026, Centre students were sent an email stating the cost for the 2026-2027 school year. While many students usually disregard emails like these as just another routine notification, those who read on noticed a staggering change: a 5.2% increase in the total cost at Centre College. This would bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9308,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304\/revisions\/9308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}