UCLA campus in westwood on Nov. 18, 2023.
Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource
The University of California plans to increase annual tuition by $3,402 for out-of-state undergraduate students who enter the university next fall, under a policy approved Wednesday by a key board of regents committee. That would bring the total cost of tuition for nonresident students to $52,536.
Tuition for incoming California residents would not be impacted by the policy, but those students still face separate, inflation-based increases that UC previously approved. Next year’s incoming class of Californians will pay about $500 more in tuition than the 2024-25 cohort, bringing the total to $14,436 before campus fees.
Under the policy, the supplemental tuition charged to UC’s nonresident undergraduates would go from $34,200 to $37,602 — a 9.9% increase. The supplemental portion is on top of UC’s base tuition charged to in-state students. The total $52,536 price for nonresidents would be frozen for that cohort of incoming students for up to six years.
The policy, which is opposed by student leaders, still needs to be approved Thursday by UC’s full board of regents. But that appears certain after it cleared the board’s finance and capital strategies committee on Wednesday.
Nonresident students in fall 2023 made up 16.6% of UC’s total undergraduate enrollment, or 38,701 students from other states and nations. More than half of those, just under 21,000, are international students.
The share of out-of-state students varies greatly across the campuses, with Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego campuses enrolling the most. In recent years, however, those three campuses have started to reduce enrollment of nonresident students at the direction of state lawmakers, who have provided UC funding to replace spots for nonresidents with Californians at those campuses.
The increase for now is a one-time hike, but UC could raise tuition further for future entering classes when it sets its budget for future years. Short of that, those future cohorts could also still be subject to inflation-based tuition increases, thanks to the plan UC previously approved for annual tuition hikes that apply to both resident and nonresident undergraduates.
In defending the tuition raise, Nathan Brostrom, UC’s chief financial officer, cited a challenging 2025-26 budget outlook for the university. As part of this year’s state budget agreement, UC was told to prepare for annual budget cuts of 7.95% beginning in 2025-26. “So that was why the timing made sense,” he said.
UC officials also said UC’s tuition for nonresident students is relatively low compared to peer institutions. At public universities in Virginia and Michigan, out-of-state students pay $11,500 and $7,000 more in fees than nonresident students at UC.
“We were quite a bit behind. And so that’s why we looked at whether we had some headroom to raise it,” Brostrom said in an interview.
Separately, a UC spokesperson said in a statement that the increase would “support core operations” amid anticipated state budget cuts “without raising costs for current students and California residents.”
The cost of UC’s supplemental nonresident tuition has steadily increased over the years. The regents approved a $762 hike in 2019, and the supplemental portion has been subject to further increases since the 2022-23 academic year as part of the annual tuition increases UC approved in 2021. But the increase approved Wednesday would represent by far the largest of those hikes.
The regents approved the hike by a voice vote, rather than a roll call vote, without any no votes.
The approval of the tuition hike came over the objections of several students, including Eduardo Tapia, who is the university affairs chair for the UC Student Association.
“Opportunity to higher education should not face any more barriers,” he added during the meeting’s public comment period. “Instead of increasing the salaries of uc administrators, let’s make sure college is more affordable for all.”
Francis Villanueva, an undergraduate student at UCLA, expressed concern that the tuition increase would impact the “most underserved, underprivileged, and marginalized” students across UC.
“UC claims that the UC system is already cheaper than other institutions across the nation,” Villanueva added. “But in such a crucial time as this one where futures are on the line, how can the UC claim to care about students and making higher education affordable?”
Brostrom, the UC chief financial officer, said he appreciates the students’ “passion” about the policy, but added that UC’s out-of-state students skew toward higher income brackets. Nonresident students aren’t eligible for Cal Grants, the financial aid awards available to California residents. Domestic out-of-state students can qualify for federal Pell Grants, but international students do not.
