The University of Tulsa is slashing its tuition and fees in half next fall. Yes, you read that correctly.
The private university is cutting the cost to attend from $54,000 to $25,000 for all undergraduates. It’s an effort to broaden the university’s accessibility in a city with a median income about equal to the annual cost to attend.
“We want Tulsa’s best and brightest to have no barriers to accessing excellence right here in their backyard,” said TU’s new President Stacy Leeds Tuesday. “And we want more students from around the nation and the world to move to Tulsa — to study here, to live here, to work here.”
The change formally takes effect in fall 2027, but the freshmen moving in next week — and returning students — will feel the benefit too. All undergraduates who expected to pay more than $25,000 next year will have their financial aid packages readjusted to get them below the new cap, Leeds said.
The rate is locked in for four years for first-time, full-time students. Tuition and fees for graduate students will remain the same.
Leeds is only six weeks into her role at the university, but this is a change she’s been thinking about for much longer.
People just “tune out” when they see a $54,000 sticker price for tuition and fees, Leeds said. With added scholarships, federal, state and tribal aid added on, she hopes what’s left is affordable for more Tulsa families.
“I have known that many people in our community don’t see this campus as accessible or a place where they feel like they can belong,” Leeds said. “And so, I think that this is something that has needed to happen for a very long time.”
Such a dramatic reduction may seem puzzling for a university that’s faced rounds of cuts and multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls in recent years. TU reported more than $164 million in revenue from student tuition and fees in its most recent tax filing, nearly half of its annual revenue.
The reduction is possible due to several donations made to the university, Leeds said, the details of which will roll out in the coming weeks. And it aligns TU’s price more closely with what most undergraduate students were already paying each year once scholarships and aid were factored in, she added.
It won’t be a magic overnight switch to the private university’s undergraduate enrollment, Leeds said, which has been in decline for years.
“But in small increments we want to get to the point where we are at that same student body level as we once were at our highest watermark,” Leeds said.
The announcement Tuesday included several city leaders, including the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools and head of Tulsa’s regional chamber. They hope TU’s decision will help the city retain and recruit exceptional residents.
“It is an incredibly competitive environment for higher ed institutions, but for cities in particular for talent,” said Mayor Monroe Nichols, who graduated from TU 20 years ago.
“What that means today is that Tulsa offers something that no one else in the country does,” Nichols said. “Maybe some places have great schools, but they don’t have it in a way that is connected to the folks that desperately need it.”
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