MORGANTOWN – The WVU Board of Governors approved tuition and fee hikes for Fiscal Year 2027 during its Friday meeting.
Resident undergraduate students will see their tuition and fees rise by $156 per semester, from $5,376 to $5,532.
Other groups: nonresident undergraduate, $912, from $15,216 to $16,128; resident graduate and professional, $189, from $6,066 to $6,246; nonresident graduate and professional, $945, from $15,714 to $16,659.
These figures were approved as part of BOG approval of the overall $1.349 billion WVU budget for FY 2027. The fiscal year begins July 1, and the new tuition and fees will take effect for the fall 2026 semester.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Kabourek told the board he wanted to bring them some perspective on the numbers.
“This is really, I think, a great first step in creating a plan to start moving WVU from stabilization to momentum,” he said. “As we move forward, our mindset has to be clear: We’re going to compete.”
WVU is going to compete for students, faculty, staff, research dollars and philanthropy, he said. “We’re going to compete for the future of West Virginia.”
Price increases matter to students and their families, he said, and they don’t take that casually. The budget, and the price increases, take into account both affordability and investment in quality education and moving WVU forward.
“No university can cut its way to greatness,” he said.
The Mountaineer Athletics Advantage Fee will rise from $125 per semester to $250, he said. All other fees remain at their current level. The advantage fee, WVU says, “aids the operations necessary to support WVU student-athletes and helps invest in the future success of WVU Athletics.”
On that topic, Kabourek referred to the One Strong WVU theme. It’s not athletics versus academics, but both united to make One Strong WVU.
He noted that every dollar invested in WVU generates $9 in economic returns to the state. WVU contributes $3.1 billion to the state economy – $3 billion of that from the Morgantown campus.
And students don’t pay the full sticker price for their education, he said. In Morgantown, in the 2024-2025 school year, 19,287 students received $440.9 million in financial aid. Average student loan debt in May 2025 was $19,800, compared to $31,900 nationally.
The budget includes $38.4 million in new resources, he said, plus $24 million held by the WVU Foundation.
Investment will be strategic, he said, with a three- to five-year strategy targeting enrollment, athletics, the foundation, employee compensation, physical capital and academic excellence. Investment will include $12 million for employee compensation, $8 million in new funds for deferred maintenance, $3 million for Health Sciences and $1.4 million for enrollment and marketing to bring in more students.
At WVU Potomac State College in Keyser and WVU Institute of Technology in Beckley, tuition and fees will increase by $108 and $144 per semester for resident students, respectively, while non-resident University tuition and fees will go up by $468 and $672. For metro rates, tuition costs will rise by $312 per semester for PSC and $396 per semester for WVU Tech.
