Despite student protests, UC regents approve tuition hike amid state, federal funding gaps

"Tuition increases are never welcome, but moderate and predictable increases are necessary to sustain the quality of education that our students deserve."

"Need the tools that we can give them to sustain the quality and the access of the University of California - and that includes, importantly, extending the Tuition Stability Plan."

"I think I speak on behalf of the student body when we say we vehemently oppose this raise in tuition."

The University of California regents voted 13 to 3, with eight absent, to renew a Tuition Stability Plan that caps inflation-based tuition increases at 5% annually and locks that rate for each entering class. The plan also reduces the portion of tuition revenue allocated to financial aid by 5%. Regents cited campus-level deficits, a $130 million state funding cut, hundreds of layoffs and federal funding uncertainties as reasons for needing predictable cash flow. Hundreds of students from all nine undergraduate campuses protested and provided oral and written opposition at the UCLA meeting, while UC leadership defended the measure as necessary to sustain quality and access.

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