New UC arrivals may see cost rise
Tuition hike eyed just for freshmen, transfer students
University of California’s regents will consider several price hikes next week that would raise undergraduate tuition for the first time since 2017. But there’s a twist: Only freshmen and transfers might have to pay.
At their Wednesday meeting in San Francisco, the regents will not only vote on whether to raise prices for graduate students, but will also look at two options for undergrads: raising tuition for all students in each of the next five years by the rate of inflation — or increasing it by more than that just for new arrivals.
Under the approach for newcomers, which would be new for UC, tuition would stay flat for students as long as they remain enrolled. Prices would rise only for freshmen and transfer students, so the system is called cohortbased tuition.
That’s also a fiveyear pro
posal. Tuition for new students would rise each year by the rate of inflation, plus 2% the first year, 1.5% in 2021, 1% in 2022, 0.5% in 2023, and by the rate of inflation in the plan’s final year.
Tuition across the nine undergraduate campuses stands at $12,570, although with campus fees the price averages $14,022.
Students from families earning $80,000 a year or less pay no tuition, while those from families earning up to $160,000 receive partial subsidies.
The regents last raised tuition in 2017, by $336 a year, or 2.7%. Tuition went down the next year — sort of. The base price fell by $60 because a temporary legal fee expired.
Next Thursday, the regents will also consider raising “professional degree supplemental tuition” annually through 202324 at four law schools — UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA and UC Irvine — and at two business schools: UC Irvine and UC San Diego.
UC charges professional degree supplemental tuition on top of basic tuition at a growing number of graduate programs. The university created the fee in 1994 as state funding dwindled, and campuses have since been asking the regents to reclassify graduate programs as “professional” programs to charge it.
If approved, law school supplemental tuition for California residents at the four campuses would average $37,749 next year, rising to more than $44,300, on average, in 2023. With base tuition and fees, a year at Berkeley Law already tops $52,000 before living expenses.
Business school supple
“The state should be responsible for funding our education, not students and their families.”
Varsha Sarveshwar, president of the UC Student Association
mental tuition for California residents would average $31,947 next year at both campuses, rising to $32,834 in 2023.
The regents are also expected to approve new professional degree supplemental tuition for four graduate degrees: genetic counseling at UCLA, humancomputer interaction at UC Santa Cruz, and two environmental science programs at UC Santa Barbara. The proposed fees range from an average of $17,220 next year, rising to $20,125 in 2023.
The proposals come despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement on Jan. 10 that he’ll ask the Legislature to increase UC funding by nearly 6% next year, a $217.7 million boost, as part of his budget proposal for 202021. Newsom also proposed $55.3 million in onetime funding for UC programs. In all, the allocation would be just short of $4 billion.
“UC appreciates the governor’s strong continued support of higher education,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in a statement calling the proposal “an important step toward covering the funds” UC needs for instruction, research and public service.
To the regents, UC officials argue that raising tuition — which they call “adjustments to selected student charges” — would let UC “avoid the worst consequences of projected shortfalls while also making the university more affordable for most California resident undergraduates.”
A third of new undergraduate tuition and fees goes to financial aid.
Nevertheless, students strongly oppose UC’s idea to raise tuition as another such step.
“The state should be responsible for funding our education, not students and their families,” said Varsha Sarveshwar, president of the UC Student Association and a fourthyear political science major at UC Berkeley. She said the students hit hardest by increases are not those who qualify for financial aid, but those from middleclass families and from out of state, who don’t qualify for aid.
“Raising tuition makes a UC education less affordable for many UC students,” Sarveshwar said, adding that students don’t consider cohortbased tuition in general to be a good compromise, though it would shield many from increases, because it all but guarantees that tuition will go up every year.
At UC Berkeley, where the spring semester begins Tuesday, new transfer students and their families tried to stay dry Thursday as they wandered the campus between orientation sessions. None who spoke with The Chronicle were pleased at the prospect of a price hike.
“Tuition is too high!” said Shyla Atchison, who is transferring in from Monterey Peninsula College. And even an increase tied to inflation would be a problem, she said, “unless wages go up, too.”
Scott Miller of Orange County, whose son, Scott, is transferring in, condemned the possible increase: “Administrative overhead is already very fat,” he said. “It’s excessive.”
Salma Elnaggar, transferring in from Mission College in Santa Clara, stated her view most succinctly: “No.”
Students expect to speak out against the tuition hikes on Wednesday morning.