CALIFORNIA—The University of California has announced that enrollment will not be expanded to in-state applicants and will place a firm limit on the enrollment of out-of-state applicants at the University of California-Berkeley and UCLA.
In spite of an increase in total applications, the public university system has stated that it cannot increase enrollment without further state funding. The schools are expected to accept the same number of Californians as the 2014 application season.
However, UC has not entirely nixed the possibility that more students will receive enrollment by way of wait-list acceptance.
The announcement comes in the midst of a dispute with California Governor Jerry Brown over a plan to increase student tuition by nearly 5 percent of its current price over the the next five years.
Unless the UC receives its desired funding.
Governor Brown has offered the UC system $120 million, which adds-up to a 4 percent increase in school revenue. This money will only reach the UC if tuition remains at current prices for another year.
In order to generate more revenue, the UC has been admitting more and more out-of-state students, who pay $35,071 annually compared to $12,192 for California residents.
This strategy has not been a universally popular one, serving as a sticking point in negotiations concerning tuition increases and state funding.
As all nine campuses prepare to send out acceptance and rejection letters, no more than 161,000 in-state students are expected to be enrolled across all nine UC campuses.
“In the past, we have admitted more California residents than we were funded for,” UC President Janet Napolitano said. “We are not in a position to do that in the future.”
