SCHOOLS
By Adam Powell
Correspondent
On November 12, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced the hiring of engineering professor Magnus Egerstedt as the school’s new executive vice chancellor and provost. Egerstedt will begin his new role in Chapel Hill on March 2, 2026.
Egerstedt, who comes to UNC from UC-Irvine in California, is replacing current interim executive vice chancellor and provost James Dean Jr.. Dean, who began this past spring, will have served in the interim role just over a year at the time that Egerstedt is expected to step into the permanent position.
“We are delighted to welcome Magnus Egerstedt to our Carolina community, and I look forward to working alongside him,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts in a University release. “With a distinguished record of leadership and deep expertise in higher education, he is exceptionally well-suited for this role. His scholarship reflects an innovative spirit and a commitment to improving the well-being of others, central tenets in our mission to be the leading public university. I am excited to see how he will help us move Carolina forward.”
“Carolina is a remarkable university that has managed to stay true to its identity as the first public university in the nation yet being a forward-looking and innovative institution. I have been highly impressed with the energy and ambition I have experienced around campus, and I am honored to have been entrusted with this opportunity by Chancellor Roberts,” said Egerstedt. “I am looking forward to working with Carolina’s outstanding faculty, students and staff on the next chapter in this storied university’s history, with AI, engineering and enrollment growth now at the forefront.”
Egerstedt’s career has taken him to multiple stops over the years. Along with his time at UC-Irvine, Egerstedt served as the Julian T. Hightower Chair at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he co-founded the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. Egerstedt worked for nearly two decades at Georgia Tech before joining the faculty at UC-Irvine in 2021.
A native of Sweden, Egerstedt graduated from Stockholm University with a degree in Philosophy and Linguistics in 1996. He went on to earn a M.S. in Engineering Physics at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 2000. His research pursuits have focused on control theory and robotics.
“His work has resulted in innovations in remote environmental monitoring and precision agriculture, and he has worked extensively on the control and coordination of complex networks, such as multirobot systems, mobile sensor networks and cyber-physical systems,” Egerstedt’s UC-Irvine biography states. “He led the creation of the Robotarium, a remotely accessible swarm robotics lab used by thousands of researchers around the world.”
“I’m thrilled with the selection of Dr. Egerstedt as Carolina’s next provost. Our faculty were adamant in their desire for a provost with a strong academic background, which he most certainly has,” said Beth Moracco, chair of the faculty and a member of the provost search committee. “I was impressed by his understanding of the breadth of what we as faculty at Carolina do, inside and outside of the classroom, and by his commitment to public higher education, academic freedom, and authentic shared governance. I look forward to working with him as our next chief academic officer.”
First tuition hike in eight years for in-state UNC-Chapel Hill students
On Thursday, November 13, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s board of trustees approved a 3% tuition increase for in-state students — the first tuition increase for North Carolina residents to attend the state’s flagship University since 2017. The increase will only apply to newly-enrolled students.
The 3% tuition increase will constitute a $211 annual increase per year for in-state families, according to University estimates. No tuition increases are scheduled for eligible resident students who remain continuously enrolled. The total in-state tuition – not including University fees – is expected to be around $7,229 annually.
Out-of-state undergraduate students will also be affected, as the plan increases the tuition of those students approximately $4,320, increasing the total out-of-state tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill to just under $50,000 annually. Out-of-state graduate students will see a 1% tuition increase.
Dining services will also increase by 4% under the newly-approved plan, while the costs for living in on-campus housing will increase by approximately 7%.
UNC-Chapel Hill and its local peer institution North Carolina State University remain two of the best financial values in terms of college enrollments across the nation. Undergraduate resident tuition and fees for the 2025-26 academic year at UNC-Chapel Hill costs approximately $9,360, while undergraduate resident tuition and fees at North Carolina State costs approximately $9,028.
By comparison, resident tuition and fees at the University of Michigan – another state University widely considered among the best in the country – costs approximately $18,346 annually for Michigan residents. It costs even more for residents of Virginia who attend or who have children attend the University of Virginia, which costs approximately $20,046 annually for in-state citizens.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, which released its latest ratings in late September, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranks the No. 4 overall public university in the United States, and the No. 1 overall value for public institutions.
Just a day prior to the board of trustees’ contentious 6-5 vote, a budget committee voted against the proposed tuition hike, raising hopes that tuition would not be raised for another year. But despite the budget committee’s decision, the full board made the decision to move forward with the increase.
The proposal will not become official until the UNC Board of Governors votes affirmatively on the plan, likely sometime in January.
Adam Powell has been a correspondent for The Local Reporter since 2023. A 2001 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Powell has served as managing editor of multiple local publications, including the News of Orange County, the Mebane Enterprise, the Caswell Messenger, and the ACC Sports Journal. Powell has won more than 20 North Carolina Press Association Awards throughout his journalism career for Excellence in Education Reporting, Excellence in Sports Columns and Features, and Excellence in Video Production. He has also been recognized by the North Carolina School Public Relations Association (NCSPRA) for Excellence in Education Writing and for his newsletters representing Rockingham County Schools and the North Carolina Cyber Academy. The author of four books. Adam currently resides in Mebane with his wife Julie and children Colt and Jenna. This reporter can be reached at:Information@TheLocal Reporter.press
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