University of North Texas officials reportedly have notified students identified as not meeting residency requirements with a deadline: They can confirm their status by Aug. 8 and continue paying in-state tuition.
With the Department of Justice ruling in June to reverse the Texas Dream Act, Texas public universities can no longer grant in-state tuition to Texas residents who don’t have legal status, even if they’ve been in the state their whole lives. Students who can’t confirm their citizenship by the deadline will have to pay out-of-state tuition.
The North Texas Daily reported late Tuesday that Chris Foster, UNT vice president of the Division of Enrollment, sent a notice Saturday to students identified as not meeting residency status.
The Denton Record-Chronicle requested an interview with UNT officials or a statement. Officials said they were preparing a statement but hadn’t sent it by Wednesday evening. This story will be updated when it is shared.
Shortly after the Justice Department ruling, a group of litigants filed a motion to intervene in the case. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Democracy Forward, National Immigration Law Center and the Dallas-based firm of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann filed the motion on behalf of La Unión del Pueblo Entero, the Austin Community College District’s Board of Trustees and UNT graduate student Oscar Silva, with the goal of defending the constitutionality of the Texas Dream Act against the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The ACLU of Texas said that in 2021, a little more than 20,000 students signed in-state tuition affidavits. That’s a small number of Texas college students, but a degree is still one way for low-income residents to achieve what colleges call social mobility, which is a pathway to career growth and more earning power.
One of UNT’s recruitment attributes is social mobility. The university reports that first-generation college students make up 41.5% of the undergraduate population and operates a First-Generation Success Center to keep the population plugged into resources and relationships with others who share their experience.
The cost of out-of-state tuition isn’t insignificant. Texas Woman’s University gives a list of total estimated cost of attendance for undergraduates for 2025-26: $27,877 for on-campus students, $29,511 for off-campus students and $17,847 for students who live at home. That includes tuition and fees for 15 credit hours per semester and estimated costs of housing, books and supplies, transportation and personal expenses. Out-of-state tuition tacks on an additional $12,600.
The University of North Texas reports that tuition for 2025-26 costs $230 per credit hour for in-state students but climbs to $460 per credit hour for nonresidents.
At North Central Texas College, Texas students who live outside of the community college district in Cooke County pay a total of $212 per credit hour in tuition and fees: $57 for tuition, $55 in general use fees and $100 in out-of-district fees. That last fee for out-of-state students is $205 per credit hour, for a total of $317 per credit hour in tuition and fees.
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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