UC looking at plans to hike tuition

University of California administrators are proposing the first tuition hike since 2017 for undergraduates who are state residents — a $348 hike, or 2.8 percent based on inflation, with more to come in the following four years.

They also are suggesting an alternative that would freeze costs for current students at UC’s nine undergraduate campuses but increase it for incoming freshmen by $606 and then more for subsequent classes.

The UC Board of Regents are expected to vote next week on the two plans, possibly approving one They could also decide to postpone any decision until the Legislature provides more funding to the university than Gov. Gavin Newsom did in his recent budget proposal.

In his budget plan last year, Newsom explicitly forbade tuition increases at state universities. However, his budget statement last week did not include such a ban and raised speculation that he might go along with modest increases based on inflation.

Newsom’s offer of a 5 percent increase, or $217.7 million more, in general revenue support for UC is not enough “to avoid the erosion in the quality of a UC education that would otherwise result” if the university relied on state funds and internal efforts at efficiencies, according to the regents’ agenda item. Newsom’s office did not respond to Ed-Source’s request for comment.

One of the plans is a traditional across-the- board hike for the 2020-21 school year of $348 on top of the current $12,570 California undergraduates pay for mandatory tuition and university-wide fees. (Campus-based fees, housing, food and other expenses can bring the total expenses to $35,000 before any financial aid discounts.)

Undergraduates from other states and nations would see tuition and university wide fees rise by 1,188 to $ 43,512 before housing and other costs.