AN ACT to increase nonresident tuition at certain constituent institutions of the university of north Carolina and TO decrease resident tuition at those same institutions using additional nonresident tuition receipts.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 116‑144 reads as rewritten:

§ 116‑144.  Higher tuition to be charged nonresidents.

(a)        Unless provided otherwise by law, the Board of Governors shall fix the tuition and required fees charged nonresidents of North Carolina who attend the institutions enumerated in G.S. 116‑4 at rates higher than the rates charged residents of North Carolina and comparable to the rates charged nonresident students by comparable public institutions nationwide, except that tuition for nonresidents who enroll in any program awarding a postsecondary degree, as defined in G.S. 116‑15, at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shall be set in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.

(b)        For the 2023‑2024 academic year, the tuition charged nonresidents who enroll in any program awarding a postsecondary degree, as defined in G.S. 116‑15, at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shall be set at a rate in an amount of at least ten percent (10%) greater than the tuition charged nonresidents enrolled at those constituent institutions for the 2022‑2023 academic year. In subsequent academic years thereafter, the Board of Governors shall fix nonresident tuition for postsecondary degree programs at these institutions at a rate that is equal to or greater than the amount of tuition charged nonresidents for the 2023‑2024 academic year.

(c)        Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, a person who serves as a graduate teaching assistant or graduate research assistant or in a similar instructional or research assignment and is at the same time enrolled as a graduate student in the same institution may, in the discretion of the Board of Governors, be charged a lower rate fixed by the Board, provided the rate is not lower than the North Carolina resident rate.

SECTION 2.  Beginning with the 2023‑2024 fiscal year, additional tuition receipts generated from increasing the tuition charged nonresidents who enroll in any program awarding a postsecondary degree, as defined in G.S. 116‑15, at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pursuant to G.S. 116‑144(b), as enacted by this act, shall be used by the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina to decrease the tuition charged for in‑State students enrolled at those constituent institutions beginning with the 2023‑2024 academic year and subsequent academic years thereafter.

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to academic periods beginning on or after July 1, 2023.