By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
At last week’s Barton Community College Board of Trustees study session, the college’s administration recommended increases for tuition and fees effective for the fall 2025 semester. For in-county students, rates would increase $2 per credit hour, going from $115 to $117. Rates for in-state, out-of-state and international students are suggested to bump up $5.
Barton Vice President of Administration Mark Dean said a lot of data goes into determining the tuition and fees.
"We have cost of our instructors, benefits and cost of operations that we have to cover," said Dean. "We basically have three sources of revenue to get that. I can take total credit hours, total expenditures, divide them and here's what our cost is per credit hour."
For the 2025 academic year, Barton’s in-county tuition rate was the sixth most affordable among the 19 community colleges in Kansas. Charging $155 per credit hour for out-of-state students, Barton was ranked the seventh cheapest in the state.
"I would like to know what other colleges are doing, but of course they want to know what we're doing," said Dean. "They're going to read what you did and they're going to bump up too. They're looking at the same shortfalls that we are with the state budget. I try to balance the need that we have with staying competitive with those close competitors."
Recommendations would increase in-state rates to $131, out-of-state rates to $160 and international rates to $223. Classes offered to high school students through Barton would remain the same at $50.
Based on last year’s enrollment numbers, the suggested increases would generate $456,729 in additional revenue for the 2026 academic year.
The Trustees will vote on the recommendation at regular meeting on Feb. 25.