Northern Kentucky University has announced the launch of a new tuition model for fall 2025. Dubbed "3 States, 1 Rate," the tuition program will offer students from all over Ohio and Indiana the same tuition rates as in-state students from Kentucky.
NKU's current tuition rate for Kentucky residents is $5,544 a semester, including mandatory fees. Before the new tuition program, students from Indiana were eligible for in-state tuition only if they lived in select counties located in the southeast corner of the state. Students from Ohio could receive in-state rates if they were from the southwest region of the state and already received an associate degree from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, Clark State, Miami University, or Southern State Community College.
RELATED: NKU passes budget, with higher tuition and student fees
Under the new program, all Indiana and Ohio students from any part of the state are eligible for the rate. NKU says it's introducing the program to eliminate the confusion around tuition and make attending the university more predictable and transparent.
"The previous model was complicated," NKU President Cady-Short Thompson told WVXU. "We just thought that this would simplify things."
Opening up the program to students beyond the Greater Cincinnati metro area will also expand NKU's reach, Short-Thompson said. Most of the university's students are Kentucky residents who live locally and commute to campus. In 2022, the university reported that only 14% of its full-time undergraduate students lived on campus. Now, those figures could change as NKU looks to recruit more in other regions where it previously didn't have much of a footprint.
"We will absolutely start to put these schools in different parts of Ohio and Indiana on our recruitment plans and our talented admissions counselors will certainly have a broader new territory to visit with prospective students and their families," Short-Thompson said.
RELATED: NKU to automatically admit area students with a 2.75 GPA or higher
The new tuition rates will only apply to students starting college in fall 2025 and beyond. Those currently enrolled will continue under their existing rate.
Other schools, like the University of Cincinnati, also offer special tuition rates for students from the Tri-State. Students from the metropolitan area in Indiana and Kentucky pay $7,288 a semester to attend UC, slightly more than the in-state tuition rate of $6,988 a semester but much less than $14,655 a semester tuition for out-of-state students.
