University of California at Berkeley. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM.)

Going to a public law school in California is poised to get significantly more expensive—especially for out-of-state students.

The University of California Board of Regents is set to vote Jan. 22 on proposed tuition increases at the four law schools within its system that, on average, would hike the amount of their so-called professional degree supplemental tuition by 17% between 2020 and 2023 and ultimately widen the gap between what California residents and nonresidents pay.

The increases would apply to students at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; the University of California, Davis School of Law; the University of California, Irvine School of Law; and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. The University of California Hastings College of the Law is the state's fifth public law school, but it operates independently of the University of California system and its tuition and budget is not set by the Board of Regents.

Under the proposal, tuition and fees at Berkeley Law, currently at $52,500 for California residents and $55,000 for nonresidents, according to university documents, will increase to $63,000 and $75,500, respectively, by 2023.

For UC Irvine, in-state tuition and fees would increase 27% from the current $47,485 to $60,604 by 2023. Meanwhile, nonresident tuition would rise 36% to $72,849 over that same period.

UC Davis would see a smaller increase, with resident tuition climbing nearly 13% to $55,735 by 2023 and nonresident tuition also increasing 13% to $66,095 during that time.

UCLA Law's tuition is only covered through 2021 under the current proposal, but its resident tuition would increase 10% from the current $47,989 to $53,207 for California residents over those two years. Meanwhile, nonresident tuition would increase nearly 14% to $61,477.

The professional degree supplemental tuition was established in 1994 as a way for the University of California to offset reductions in state funding, and it remains the single largest component of the amount law students pay. For example, it currently accounts for nearly three-quarters of the tuition and fees for California residents attending Berkeley Law.

But none of the four University of California law schools have raised that professional degree supplemental tuition since 2012, said UC Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky. At the same time, state funding has declined. Public funding now accounts for just 7% of Berkeley Law's budget, he said. Without an increase in public support, the schools must raise tuition or risk reducing the quality of their programs, Chemerinsky said. The proposed tuition increase will bring UC Berkeley more in line with competitor schools, he added.

"If you look at the other top 10 law schools, we're priced, basically $10,000 less," Chemerinsky said. "We can't be priced substantially lower than our peer schools.

The proposed increases are likely to hit out-of-state students the hardest because over time they eliminate the difference in the professional degree supplemental tuition paid by resident and nonresident students. Currently, nonresident students pay a lower amount, and the proposal calls for increasing that tuition at a higher rate to bring it in line with what residents students pay.

But each of the four law schools also maintains a separate "Nonresident Supplemental Tuition" of about $12,000 annually, which would be retained under the proposal, meaning out-of-state students would pay that additional tuition while also eventually paying the same amount as residents for the professional degree supplemental tuition.

Chemerinsky said that the regents told the law school last year that it wanted to see a larger difference between what California residents and nonresidents pay. However, most students at University of California law schools qualify as residents after one year and therefore only pay the higher nonresident cost for a single year. Plus, the list tuition prices don't reflect the fact that many students receive financial aid. For example, Berkeley Law's most recent graduating class received $3.6 million in financial aid, while the school has earmarked $6 million in aid for the class that began last fall, Chemerinsky said. That boost is possible through increased fundraising.

Meanwhile, UC Hastings, which is not covered under the larger proposal, does not have any current plans to raise tuition, said chief financial officer David Seward. The school has essentially frozen its fees for the past seven years, which was possible through increases in state funding.

"For Hastings, the state government and legislature have been very supportive of us," he said. "We don't have plans to raise fees unless there is a shift in state funding, and I don't see that happening."