Trustees to determine 2016-17 undergraduate tuition Saturday

Duke's Board of Trustees will convene Saturday at the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club to vote on the proposed undergraduate tuition for the 2016-17 academic year and meet with Nobel laureate Paul Modrich.

The Trustees will also discuss scientific research opportunities, the University's global strategy and higher education affordability.

Last year the Board increased undergraduate tuition by 3.8 percent to $47,650, which brought the overall cost of attendance to $63,273. 

New 2016-17 tuition rates for the graduate and professional schools will also be set Saturday.

President Richard Brodhead is expected to lead the discussion about higher education affordability, which comes after recent efforts to make the University more accessible. Brodhead announced the creation of the new Washington Duke Scholars program for first-generation students last November.

Provost Sally Kornbluth and Dr. A. Eugene Washington, chancellor for health affairs and CEO of Duke University Health System, will lead the conversation about research opportunities. Both Kornbluth and Washington discussed the potential for increased collaboration between Duke's main and medical campuses in conversations with The Chronicle last August.

Modrich, James B. Duke professor of biochemistry, member of the Duke Cancer Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last October with Aziz Sancar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Tomas Lindahl of the Francis Crick Institute in the U.K. The trio made fundamental discoveries about DNA mismatch repair mechanisms—a critical process in maintaining the integrity of many organisms’ DNA.

The co-chairs on the task force on bias and hate issues, Linda Burton, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology, and Kelly Brownell, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, are also expected to present to the Trustees.