University of California Tuitions to Go Up Next Year

LOS ANGELES, CA - It was nice while it lasted, but UCI's six-year tuition freeze is over, and the cost of attending UCLA, UC Irvine and other University of California schools will creep up in the fall.

The Board of Regents Thursday approved the first tuition increase in six years, hiking in-state tuition at from $11,220 this year to $11,502 in 2017-18, a roughly 2.5 percent increase. The accompanying student services fee will rise by $54, from $1,074 to $1,128. University officials defended the increases as necessary to keeping class-sizes down.

Out-of-state students will pay the same increases in base tuition and fees, along with a $1,332 jump in supplemental tuition, which will increase to $28,014. The total increase for non-resident students will be $1,668.

However, the tuition hikes won't hit everyone equally. More than half of California's undergrads receive financial aid covering all their tuition, according to university officials. UC officials noted that two-thirds of undergraduate students would have the increase covered by financial aid.

According to the university, the increases are needed following a six- year tuition freeze to help keep down class sizes by hiring more faculty while bolstering student services such as tutoring, academic advisers, mental health services and teachers assistants.

UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said earlier that one-third of the tuition increase would be used to support financial aid programs for housing, food, books and transportation. She said enrollment has continued to increase at UC campuses, and an effort to boost the number of California resident students led last year to the largest single-year increase in in-state enrollment since World War II.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, said he respects the pressure on state universities.

"At the same time, we have to do everything possible to keep college affordable," he said. "That includes preserving, and even working to expand, financial aid programs like the Middle Class Scholarship."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. Photo: b r e n t via Wikimedia Commons