Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday reminded public college and university presidents that undergraduate tuition and fees should not rise next year, telling campuses his previous freeze directive remains “fully in effect.” The letter means no undergraduate tuition and fee increases are supposed to take effect for the 2026-27 school year at Texas public two- and four-year schools, including health-related institutions.
Abbott’s message lands as universities and college systems are still putting together budgets for the coming academic year, and after some systems moved ahead with non-academic fee proposals anyway. The governor said he wants to work with state lawmakers next session to extend the freeze beyond next year, keeping pressure on campuses to hold the line while state policy remains unsettled.
The push continues a pattern Texas lawmakers have already used. State legislators froze undergraduate tuition and fees for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, and Abbott issued the current freeze directive in November 2024. The state has also poured fresh money into higher education, approving more than $680 million in 2023 to overhaul community college funding and another $328 million in increased financial aid funding in the 2025-27 budget cycle.
That mix of freezes and funding has not stopped every campus from looking for new revenue. Last week, the University of Texas System regents approved non-academic mandatory fee increases for several campuses. At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the university services fee would rise from $38.10 per semester credit hour to $70 per semester credit hour beginning in 2027, even as the UT System said the changes would not lift the average cost of attendance at any affected campus by more than 3.7%.
The friction is straightforward: tuition is frozen, but some fees are not being treated the same way. Archie L. Holmes Jr. said the increases were “non-academic in nature” and “really well thought out,” a defense that underscores how campuses are trying to navigate Abbott’s order without giving up on added charges elsewhere.
For now, the governor’s latest warning answers the question colleges have been asking since the November 2024 directive: undergraduate tuition and fees are supposed to stay flat for 2026-27, and Abbott is signaling he intends to keep it that way unless lawmakers change the rules next session.
