A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the Board of Governors to establish out‑of‑country nonresident tuition and to PROVIDE that the tuition rate must be set at an amount equal to at least two hundred percent of the academic cost to the state.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 116‑144 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑144.  Higher tuition to be charged nonresidents; out‑of‑country nonresident tuition rate.
(a)	The Board of Governors shall fix the tuition and required fees charged citizens of the United States who are 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 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.
(b)	The Board of Governors shall fix the tuition and required fees charged nonresidents of the United States who attend the institutions enumerated in G.S. 116‑4 at rates higher than the rates charged residents of North Carolina. The Board of Governors shall establish an out-of-country nonresident tuition rate and shall set that rate at an amount equal to at least two hundred percent (200%) of the academic costs to the State. However, 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. For purposes of this subsection, the term "academic costs" means the average general and educational costs incurred by the constituent institution in its General Fund Budget Code."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to academic periods beginning on or after July 1, 2003.