Session Laws

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to immediately provide for certain tuition rates in public institutions of higher education in the commonwealth, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 15A of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 5A, as appearing in the 1986 Official Edition, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 5A. The board of regents of higher education shall fix a rate of tuition and charge all students enrolled in public institutions of higher education who are not residents of the commonwealth, who cannot become residents thereof such as non-resident aliens lawfully admitted for the purposes of attending an institution of higher education in the United States under the immigration laws thereof or who have indicated by an affirmative act on their part expressing an intention not to reside in the commonwealth in the future, said rate of tuition which shall be based upon true education costs at such institutions, which costs shall include, but not be limited to the cost of instruction, the cost of operating, equipping and maintaining the physical plant, the full and actual library costs, the costs of administration, the costs of operating student services and programs of financial assistance, all revenues from trust funds and related day school operations, grant funds, reserves from continuing education funds and student activities and graduation fees.

Said rate of tuition shall not be interpreted or implemented by the board as full time equivalency status or any other such policy or plan, or portion thereof, contravening the express purposes of said differential tuition. The board shall charge said rate of tuition to said students notwithstanding any other provision of any other tuition plan or policy adopted by the board, provided however, that said students shall be eligible for the board's talent tuition waiver program upon demonstration of financial need, as long as no more than fifty per cent of the total value of waivers allocated to each campus under the program may be awarded to nonresident students, and as long as the total dollar value of the program does not exceed one per cent of the tuition revenue of each campus. The board may, however, notwithstanding the foregoing, make reasonable exemptions and charges for any alien student whose immediate family lawfully resides in the commonwealth, or for any student who is a full time graduate student, or when reciprocal agreements exist between commonwealth supported schools and foreign schools of higher education.

SECTION 2. Section twenty-seven of chapter three hundred and three of the acts of nineteen hundred and eighty-seven is hereby repealed.

SECTION 3. The provisions of section one of this act shall not apply to any student enrolled in any public institution of higher education in the commonwealth prior to October first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven.