Students who stay too long at UNC schools have to pay a surcharge. But a bill would change that.

Republicans introduced a bill in the N.C. Senate on Tuesday that would roll back tuition surcharges for students at UNC system schools who take too much time and too many credit hours to get their degrees.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir; Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Guilford, and Sen. Rick Horner, R-Nash, would offer relief to students who take more than four years and more than 140 credit hours to get a four-year degree, as well as those who take more than five years and 110 percent of the credit hours required by a five-year program.

With some exceptions, students exceeding those limits have been subject to a 50 percent tuition surcharge since fall 2010. From 1994 until 2010, the surcharge was 25 percent.

The surcharge is assessed only to students who exceed both limits; those who take more than the allotted credit hours within the allotted time are not charged extra.

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