University tuition will become more expensive if you’re taking more than 15 credit hours next semester
Students enrolled in more than 15 academic credit hours will have to pay tuition at a higher rate beginning in the Fall 2025 semester, according to an announcement from Winthrop’s Finance and Business Affairs CFO and Vice President Kevin Butler.
Butler announced that Winthrop will transition to a pure credit hour pricing model for tuition beginning next semester in an email sent out to students as part of the university’s year two of the Tuition Transparency Initiative.
The email said that tuition and fees for students enrolled in 12-15 hours will remain at essentially the same rate as last year, but students taking more than 15 hours will be charged at a new rate that will be at a discount compared to last year’s tuition, according to Butler.
“Winthrop has been capping the cost of tuition for students enrolled in 12 credit hours or more per semester as if they were only enrolled in 12 credit hours,” Butler said. “That cap is being removed. The new credit hour-based tuition was constructed using the current full-time academic year tuition which was reduced by 8% from the previous year.”
Butler said the new rates for full time students was created by dividing the capped rated amount by 15 credit hours, as opposed to 12 in previous years.
“The main reasons for these changes are transparency, comparability and equity,” Butler said. “Winthrop broke out the embedded fees as part of our Tuition Transparency Initiative so that it was clear to the students where their tuition and fee payments are going. This also helps the students to compare pricing at other institutions. In addition, a student who does not have the ability or desire to enroll in more than 15 credit hours should not pay the same as a student enrolled in, say 18 credit hours.”
A student interested in enrolling in credit hours above 15 hours will pay a rate of $467 per credit hour above the capped amount in combined tuition, tech and activity fees required to register for a class, according to Butler.
For the past 5 years, Winthrop University did not raise the annual tuition for its students, and was the only public institution in the state of South Carolina to reduce tuition and fees.
“As part of the Tuition Transparency Initiative launched last year, we reduced tuition and mandatory fees for all full-time (12 or more credit hours) undergraduate in-state students by 8.5% and for out-of-state students by 5.5%. These reductions have provided welcome financial relief to students while also simplifying our tuition and fees structure. Additionally, we reduced the per-credit-hour rate for part-time undergraduate students (fewer than 12 credit hours), lowering rates by 8.8% for in-state students and by 5.7% for out-of-state students.”
Summer 2025 tuition at Winthrop University will stay at the same rates as the 2024-2025 per-credit-hour regular semester tuition rate.
