UC tuition rates for California residents will remain flat in the 2019-20 school year, UC President Janet Napolitano announced at a March 6 educational finance hearing. The rate rests at $12,570 per year for undergraduates. Napolitano gave no word regarding tuition increases for out-of-state students.
This decision comes a month after Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a new 2019-20 California budget plan that adds $240 million to the state’s $3.5 billion annual contribution to the UC. The quarter-billion dollar increase is geared toward addressing student housing and food insecurity, low graduation rates and a lack of campus mental health resources. An additional one-time fund of $138 million will be spent on deferred maintenance costs.
“We are optimistic about our strong partnership with the governor and the legislature and will work collectively to identify additional resources, in lieu of tuition revenues, to ensure that UC students can succeed,” Napolitano said at the hearing.
Starting in 2010, the UC froze tuition rates for in-state students until 2017, when costsincreasedto$12,630.In2018,tuition dropped$60tothecurrent$12,570.Atits March 13 meeting, the UC Regents raised out-of-state tuition by 2.6 percent, or $762.
For the past decade, price hikes for non-resident students outpaced those of their in-state peers. In 2018-19, the out-of- statetuitionrateincreasedfrom$41,346to $42,324. If current trends continue, rates could rise by up to 2.6 percent in 2019-20.
Changes to tuition rates would hardly denttheUC’s$36.5billionyearlyoperating budget. In 2018-19, tuition will account for only 10.7 percent of the UC’s revenue, according to a report released by the UC Regents. State financial aid funding will account for 15 percent.
In contrast, revenues from the UC’s five medical facilities and other university- provided sales and services are expected to comprise over half of the UC’s 2019- 20 budget. Although the use of these externally-sourced funds is regulated — and does not go toward college staff salaries — it’s a massive brick in the public-private wall that is the UC system.
