After months of debate, the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents has given the go ahead to a five-year plan to boost tuition for nonresidents significantly, while keeping tuition increases for Minnesota residents "to a minimum."

But it stopped short of setting any specific dollar amounts.

On Friday, the board endorsed a strategy to "attempt to raise" nonresident tuition from what is now the lowest rate in the Big Ten — $20,660 a year — to the midpoint by 2021. That would put the price about $35,000, according to university estimates.

Originally, President Eric Kaler had proposed raising the cost for nonresidents by $3,200 a year to reach that goal. But the plan approved Thursday says that the increases "will be incremental," and that the U will monitor the effect on both national and international students. Student leaders, among others, had protested that such dramatic increases would scare off potential students.

Vice Provost Robert McMaster said that news reports about the possible tuition hike, which has been under discussion for almost a year, may already have had a chilling effect. He said the U has seen an 8 percent drop in confirmations from out-of-state students planning to enroll this fall. "So we are very concerned about that," he said. Last year, the U raised nonresident tuition by 7 percent.

A number of state legislators have been pushing the U to raise out-of-state tuition rates dramatically, arguing that taxpayers have been subsidizing those students at the expense of Minnesota residents.

In 2008, the U slashed out-of-state tuition by a third as part of a deliberate effort to attract more students from across the country (not counting students from neighboring "reciprocity" states, who pay in-state tuition.) Since then, officials say, the number of national and international students has nearly tripled to roughly 20 percent of the Twin Cities campus, while those from neighboring states declined. Minnesota students make up about 66 percent of the Twin Cities campus, and 71 percent systemwide.

The fall tuition rates, for residents and nonresidents, are expected to be set in June.

Maura Lerner • 612-673-7384