Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Transcript price increase is unreasonable

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Chelsea Purgahn

On Oct. 3, students received an email announcing that transcript request costs would soar from an already high $10 to $20, an overwhelming 100 percent increase.

“In order to continue providing the high quality service that our students need and expect, the fee to request an official university transcript is now $20,” Shelby Stanfield, Vice Provost and Registrar said in the email.

Many UT students feel the burden of attending a large university on a daily basis. We are consistently informed of additional fees and price increases, but more often than not, the reason why a change is necessary goes unsaid.


The University’s Board of Regents approved a 3.1 percent tuition increase for the this academic year, which will have another 3 percent increase layered on top of it for the 2017-2018 academic year. Coupled with the consistent annual increase in rent, these growing expenses become daunting for students at the University.

As soon as the email was sent out informing students of the fee increase, a petition was formed by senior biology major Rahil Gour, and has over 6000 signatures since.

“Last year students successfully rallied together to fight the price increase put on data usage on campus!” petition-writer Rahil Gour said. “Together we can rally against another unjust fee increase. All students require official transcripts throughout their college career. Transcript requests are needed even more frequently for students applying for post-grad programs and those who take classes at community college to save time and money!”

The petition argued that several colleges and universities do not charge for an official transcript request or have much lower fees. Austin Community College currently does not charge for official transcript requests. Texas A&M University recently increased their transcript request fee to $10. Although OU still sucks, their students currently have no charge for official transcript requests.

Personally, I don’t think that printing out pre-established grades that are found on a digital grade recording system onto a simple 8 by 11 inch piece of paper really deserves the 100 percent increase in cost for the students who already pay thousands of dollars for tuition.

Additionally, it doesn’t make sense for financially struggling students to have to request multiple transcripts for scholarship applications or forcing them to pay $20 for each copy.

On top of the inevitable annual rent increases, the tuition increase and now the transcript request cost increase, the UTPrint prices have also increased. Although only by 5 cents, everything adds up in the end.

In less than a day, the petition had received over 5,000 signatures. Because of this, Student Government is also holding a campus conversation on registration where students will be able to voice their concerns directly to the registrar’s office.

What starts here doesn’t just change the world, it also changes my bank balance. A 100 percent fee increase just to prove to institutions that I worked hard for my grades during my time at UT is simply unacceptable.

Sailfullah is a neuroscience junior from Richardson. Follow her on twitter @coolstorysunao

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Transcript price increase is unreasonable