Dental students soon to feel tuition hike pain

June 29, 2009 by Pashtana Usufzy 

Fees to be put on hopeful dentists in the fall

The Nevada Syatem of Higher Education Board of Regents has approved separate tuition increases for both the UNLV School of Dental Medicine and a volunteer residency program for dental students at the university.

A permanent increase of approximately $2,000 per year will be tacked on to the UNLV tuition, with the average tuition increasing from $133,000 over four years to $141,000.

Karen West, dean of the dental school, told regents that the move was required to maintain the quality of education and outreach.

“It is necessary,” West told the Regents.

Dental students came to the board meeting to show their support for the increase.

“You can’t just cut a class on root canals and [hope to] learn it on [the go],” said school of dental medicine Student Body President Jeremy Cox.

The volunteer pediatric residency program in the School of Dental Medicine will also implement fees as well as basic tuition costs.

Next year, the ten students expected to participate in the program will pay $25,000 in basic tuition and $5,000 in special fees.

The fee increases are balanced out by the potential earnings of students who go into the pediatric and adult dentristry fields, West said.

She cited statistics showing that specialists can make as much as $200,000 a year with the proper degrees and said the students were prepared for the change.

“The students were [made aware] that they could be facing… tuition increases for the [fall] semester,” West said.

Provost Neal Smatresk and West agreed that these increases could make up for roughly half of the funding lost by the School of Dental Medicine due to budget cuts.

The school, which enrolls an average of 75 students per year, plans to enact the increases and new tuition for the upcoming fall semester.