MANKATO — Minnesota State University announced Tuesday its decision to continue to honor Minnesota resident tuition rates for South Dakota residents who enroll at the Mankato campus even though South Dakota has cancelled its reciprocity agreement with Minnesota.
On Jan. 30, the South Dakota Board of Regents notified the Minnesota Office of Higher Education of its intent to terminate the tuition reciprocity agreement between the states beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year.
MSU President Edward Inch stated that MSU wants to ensure that, when considering enrolling at MSU this fall, students from South Dakota will not be impacted by an unexpected higher out-of-state tuition rate.
According to a current credit-level cost chart on MSU’s website, tuition fees are $326.70 per credit for undergraduate students enrolled in 12-18 credits.
The specific tuition rates for the 2024-2025 academic year have not been finalized yet.
The current cost for South Dakota residents to attend MSU vary slightly from the cost for Minnesota residents. For the 2023-2024 year the tuition cost to attend MSU as an undergraduate student for a South Dakota resident is $317.38 per credit. However, students that are taking between 12-18 credits pay the same amount at MSU because the university has a system called banded tuition. The tuition rate for South Dakota residents that are enrolled in 12-18 undergraduate credits is currently $4,177.72 per semester.
For Minnesota residents this year the per credit tuition cost is slightly higher than SD residents at $326.70. This reflects the slightly higher average tuition cost at Minnesota’s public universities compared to the average public university cost in South Dakota. However, the banded tuition rate for Minnesota residents taking between 12-18 credits this year is $4,177.50 per semester making it almost the same cost for most students from both Minnesota and South Dakota.
“The fee costs associated with tuition and the room and meal rates at our university are the same for students regardless of where they are from. These fees reflect the price of the goods and services they receive from the university in the way of technology, health care, access to academic resources, housing, and food,” said Brian Jones, MSU vice president for enrollment management, in an email to The Free Press.
New undergraduate students from South Dakota will be able to enroll at MSU this fall at the same tuition rate as the previous reciprocity rate, Inch stated. That rate will be honored throughout the completion of these students’ degrees.
Jones stated that MSU’s current students from South Dakota also will receive the current reciprocity rate until the completion of their undergraduate degrees. Any university increases in tuition in future years will not exceed increases in residential rates for students from South Dakota who enroll in the fall of 2024, Jones stated.