UC ups tuition for out-of-state, international students
University of California students who aren’t from the Golden State are set to paymore to attend the prestigious system this fall.
The board of regents that overseesUC voted Thursday to raise tuition for out- ofstate and international students by 3.5 percent a year, or around $1,000.
Nonresident students will now pay a nearly $29,000 supplemental tuition charge on top of the $12,630 that in- state students pay, a figure that has climbed steadily in recent years.
Most of the regents — who voted 12-3 for the increase with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Assemblyman John Pérez and student regent PaulMonge opposing — said the increase would raise nearly $35 million in badly needed funds and help the university remain globally competitive.
But students have said the increase puts higher education increasingly out of reach. Students could be forced to go part time or drop out altogether, Monge worried, pointing out that sometimes visas place caps on how many hours international students can work.
“We can’t continue to treat nonresident students as cash cows rather than constituents, because that’s what they are,” Monge said.
Room- and- board costs have now ballooned to more than $15,000 a year at many campuses, leaving many students scrambling for increasingly costly offcampus alternatives.
George Kieffer, the chair of the regents, acknowledged the board had heard some “wrenching stories” from students in need, but urged his colleagues “not to lose sight of the other picture on this, that our chancellors uniformly asked us to take this up and consider it because of their own budgetary needs.”
Gov. Jerry Brown has typically proposed increasing UC’s state funding by 4 percent, but reduced that to 3 percent this year. Brown called on the systemto limit its spending, prompting intense lobbying from UC for more money.
The regents, who have had a tense relationship with lawmakers in Sacramento following several scathing audits of UC’s finances, agreed to roll back the increase if their lobbying for more state funding pays off. They also approved a call to ask the state to permit UC to reinstate financial aid for low-income nonresident students.