After much discussion, MBA tuition at UCLA remains frozen
The 720 students in UCLA’s full-time MBA program are getting a break from big tuition hikes for next year, along with most students across the UC system.
Behind that happy fact is a complicated history, perhaps worthy of a case study in economics and government.
UC President Mark G. Yudof last month granted “self-supporting” status to that master’s in business administration program at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. The move ends state funding and allows the program to support itself with tuition and donations.
The change also streamlines the process for any proposed increase in the supplemental tuition UC tacks on to professional graduate studies: hikes for “self-supporting” programs need approval from just the UC president and not the full UC board of regents.
Last fall, UC administrators had planned fee increases at 50 graduate and professional programs, including the Anderson MBA. But Gov. Jerry Brown and other state leaders had objected to the plan. UC first delayed any action and then last week formally abandoned the proposal except for increases at four nursing programs and four new master’s in various technology and health-related areas.
But with their new financing status, Anderson officials had planned to still seek Yudof’s approval for an increase of about $3,800 for the year, a hike that would have brought the cost of fees and tuition to more than $52,000, not including living expenses. But now they say it is too late in the process to seek that raise and instead will stick with the same basic tuition and fees as the academic year that just ended.
However, health insurance rates have gone up and some new document fees are required, together increasing costs by about $500. So the total bill for one year in the full-time MBA program is expected to be $48,722 for California residents, the school reports.
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Twitter: @larrygordonlat
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