Tuition in the University of California (UC) system could rise by five percent as soon as next year and for each of the following four years.

According to the Los Angeles Times, UC President Janet Napolitano unveiled a plan Thursday to increase tuition in order to cover expenses for retirement benefits, employee salary bumps and more. The UC system is also looking to add about 5,000 undergraduates over the next five years as well as hire more faculty.

Next year, Calif. residents could pay $12,804 in tuition - not including board and textbooks - and that could rise to $15,564 in the 2019-2020 academic year. The UC system has not raised its tuition in four years, but Napolitano could not move forward with her desired expansion without doing so.

"We are being honest, being honest with Californians in terms of cost and also ensuring that we are continuing to maintain the University of California in terms of academic excellence," she told the Associated Press.

The former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security said when she took over the UC system about a year ago that she would need to make "modest" tuition hikes, something she considered inevitable anyway, to accomplish her goals.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a member of the UC Board of Regents, was among a group of critics of the proposal. The Board of Regents will consider Napolitano's proposal on Nov. 19.

"I'm measurably disappointed and I feel like we've learned nothing from the economic crisis that allowed us to begin looking inward to look at reforms to negate stacking up more debt on the backs of students, particularly middle-class students who will bear the brunt of this increase," Newsom told the AP.

Napolitano also addressed concern that the UC system is accepting an increased amount of out-of-state students for their extra-high tuition bill, the Times reported. She said the Regents are likely to consider placing limits on how many such students can gain enrollment. Her proposal also extends the five-percent hike to graduate students, the professional schools and out-of-staters.