Dive Brief:
- The University of California System's Board of Regents approved a $9.3 billion budget last week that will be used to boost next year's undergraduate enrollment by 2,500 students without raising tuition, the Los Angeles Times reported. The budget is the first part of a four-year plan to grow the student body, bolster student success and spend more on research.
- The regents' budget plan asked for $277.6 million of additional state funding, of which $63.8 million would be earmarked to avoid tuition hikes. The system is also projecting to take in more than $100 million in tuition and fees from the larger enrollment and an additional $70.4 million in donations, investments and cost savings, the Times reported.
- Some of the system's institutions are close to their capacity, such as the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses, but others have the potential to make room for more students, including campuses at Merced and Riverside. However, they will first need improvements to housing, classrooms and other facilities.
Dive Insight:
The UC spending plan is an effort to address a thorny batch of problems that colleges and universities face, including a need to boost graduation rates and combat nationwide enrollment declines. Some believe one solution to these issues is to stop tuition increases or even lower rates, though this can be difficult to implement at public institutions without more state support.
A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found state funding for higher education has declined since 2008 by more than $7 billion, when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, public bachelor's colleges saw a 20% increase in net tuition revenue per student between the 2005-06 and 2015-16 academic years, but only a 2% increase in their total revenues due to diminished government support, according to a recent report by the College Board.
California, however, is one of four states where the state government has increased financial support for higher education since the Great Recession, though it has only provided 0.3% more than it did in 2008, according to CBPP data.
The UC System's budget plan appears to be in line with incoming California Gov. Gavin Newsom's goals for the state's higher education. He has been critical of tuition increases and has promised to fund a cradle-to-career education system that includes two tuition-free years of community college, which is projected to cost $92 million annually. All together, his plans for higher education may require an additional $2 billion per year from the state budget.
Beyond addressing tuition levels and state aid, the UC four-year plan attempts to tackle other issues, including access to college. Boosting enrollment at the Merced location has the potential to do just that, as it has the largest proportion of low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students out of all the UC campuses. In an effort to make room for more students and build new facilities, Merced is underway with a $1.3 billion project that completed its first phase over the summer.