Tuition fee increases and staff layoffs looming for a broad set of US universities

Schools grappling with meagre upticks in state support amid uncertain economy

- Alan Blinder

Public universities in the United States' Midwest are raising prices for out-of-state students, as Florida schools consider making the same move for the first time since 2012.

Cornell and Duke are among the colleges weighing layoffs. The University of Minnesota is cutting hundreds of jobs, even as undergraduate tuition soars as much as 7.5 per cent.

Just as America's colleges are preparing to welcome what could be the largest freshman class in the nation's history, political and economic forces are unleashing havoc on higher education budgets.

Schools are grappling with meagre upticks in state support and topsy-turvy economic forecasts, and Republicans in Washington are pursuing federal budget cuts and threatening tax hikes.

Students and employees from coast to coast are poised to feel the squeeze. Although the exact consequences will vary by school, administrators are warning that many students may have to pay more, professors may lose their jobs, programmes could vanish and support services could shrink.

The turmoil is not limited to any one type of university or college, or any one state. A day before Michigan State University trustees opted for tuition increases, a California State University campus minutes from the Pacific Ocean announced that it was trimming its workforce.

"If you're a student or family looking to go to college this year, all of the numbers are going in the wrong direction," said Dr Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, who described the mood among higher education leaders as "dark but resolved".

The Trump administration's efforts to reduce research funding are siphoning cash from many campuses, sometimes by hundreds of millions of dollars. But that is just one factor contributing to higher education's financial crunch. Colleges, like businesses and households, are facing greater costs for wages, supplies, utilities and other expenses.