University of Hawaii administrators are weighing whether to propose a tuition increase beginning in the fall of 2012.

Linda Johnsrud, UH vice president for academic planning and policy, acknowledged that with UH budget cuts and tuition rising at other universities, there is pressure to again raise tuition when the current six-year schedule of tuition increases ends next year.

UH regular semester tuition

But Johnsrud said it is too early to say whether tuition will go up, and the decision depends on a number of factors, including the effect of tuition on access to higher education and the availability of financial aid.

Tuition is part of a process to determine the “;quality of higher education to offer to the numbers of people you want at an affordable price,”; Johnsrud said.

The Board of Regents approved general budget policy guidelines yesterday that call for UH administrators to start looking at tuition this summer and come up with a proposal to present to the board and the general public this fall.

It also states that any budget increases should advance the university's strategic plan, which including the goals of increasing the number of UH graduates by 25 percent by 2015, work-force development and improving the university's infrastructure.

A budget memo from UH President M.R.C. Greenwood notes that state appropriations for UH have been reduced by $107 million while enrollment is at an all-time high of 58,000 students.

“;These reductions have impacted the university's ability to deliver academic programs,”; Greenwood wrote.

In addition, UH faculty who took a pay cut this year and next year will have their salaries restored in 2012.

Greenwood said the first step in determining whether tuition should rise will be to look at tuition at other peer universities and colleges and see how UH compares.

That will happen this summer, Johnsrud said.

She said Board of Regents policy requires the UH administration to look at other factors in determining tuition, including how UH compares with other national and western universities and colleges; different tuition for resident and nonresidents and for undergraduates, graduate students and professional schools such as law and medicine; and the balance between what state taxpayers and students pay to provide higher education.

Johnsrud said UH likely will propose a multiyear tuition schedule, and any tuition increase probably would be accompanied by an increase in financial aid.

The tuition proposal will undergo months of public hearings and could change by the time it is finally expected to be approved by the board next spring.

The current tuition schedule was approved in 2005 and raised tuition by 140 percent over six years at UH-Manoa. The increase was designed to bring UH more in line with tuition charged at other public universities and colleges. Part of the tuition increase also funded increases in financial aid.