University of California President Janet Napolitano asked the school regents on Wednesday for the approval of a tuition increase. This is to help the university maintain its quality even with increasing enrollment and decreasing levels of state support.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Napolitano said that more investment will be needed to ensure that the current and future generations of students will get the same quality of education as past generations. The proposal is to raise tuition to $11,502 for the 2017-2018 school year, which is a 2.5 percent or $282 increase.
The student services fee would also see an increase by $54 to $1,128. This would be the first tuition increase since the 2010-2011 school year, if it pushes through.
UC spokesperson Dianne Klein said that financial aid would be able to cover the increases for two-thirds of the school's 175,500 California local undergraduates. Non-resident undergraduates would see an increase of $1,668.
Non-resident undergraduates will be paying the same higher base tuition and students fees. On top of that, though, they will pay 5 percent more in supplemental tuition, which would rise from $26,682 to $28,014 next year.
UC officials noted that the hikes would be able to bring in $88 million. A third of that money would be used for financial aid. The rest of the funds would be used for enrollment growth and other needs such as adding faculty, counselors and tutors as well as increasing its mental health services.
CBS News added that the university system's Board of Regents have voted 16-4 to increase tuition by 2.5 percent. The increase of other fees has also been approved.
Regent Charlene Zettel admitted that it was a difficult decision to approve the increase. Regent Gavin Newsom, who voted against the proposal, added that a lot of families will be burdened by the increase.
It was previously reported that the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) received a whopping 102,107 applications. It has become the first school to receive more than 100,000 applications.
