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BY TOM LATEK

Kentucky Today

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents announced Friday the adoption of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, that includes a pay raise for staff members and a tuition increase for students.

During a two-day meeting held at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, the Regents approved a budget of $992,588,400 for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.  It provides a $2,000 base salary increase for regular full-time employees.

“I fully support the board’s decision to approve employee raises for the second year in a row,” said KCTCS Interim President Larry Ferguson.  “A sustainable investment in our workforce is important.  Their hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence are the driving forces behind our success as a community college system.”

The board voted to raise tuition for the 2023-2024 academic year at all KCTCS colleges by $4 per credit hour.  This brings In-State tuition rates to $186 and $250 for students attending KCTCS from out of state. Despite this increase, KCTCS tuition remains the lowest in Kentucky and about half the cost of university tuition.

Regents also approved the adoption of the initial recommendations derived from a comprehensive study conducted by the Huron Consulting Group, an external agency that was hired last year to evaluate a broad range of business practices within the system.

The initial recommendations from Huron encompass a variety of priorities centered around space utilization, optimization of academic programming, and financial and organizational assessments.

“KCTCS is now twenty-five years old,” Board of Regents Chair James Stevens noted. “Taking a detailed look at how we are currently conducting business and making some necessary adjustments is the only way forward towards those next twenty-five years.”

A detailed report from the Huron study along with initial recommendations will be released at a later time.

KCTCS is Kentucky’s largest postsecondary institution with 16 colleges serving nearly 100,000 students each academic year.