Jack Brittain, vice president of technology venture development at the U., is quick to point out that the decision wasn't made lightly and school officials have debated the issue since 2000. In the end, he said there was just no other way to hire more faculty and maintain quality, he said. The money from the tuition increase will allow the school to hire eight full-time professors.

The U.'s business school is ranked sixth in the western United States, Brittain added, with undergraduate tuition among the lowest in the region.

"The real threat is if you lose the quality faculty, the education just isn't worth as much," he said. "A student with a business bachelor's will have $1 million more in lifetime earnings. They derive a personal benefit for that and sort of pay a premium for a business degree."

Utah State University has charged slightly higher tuition for business and engineering majors since 2002. The $2 per credit hour increase doesn't make a sizable dent in overall tuition and hasn't impacted enrollment, USU budget director Courtney Pugh said.

Finney said she hopes the differential tuition phenomenon doesn't become widespread in Utah, particularly because financial aid has not kept pace with national averages. The system, she said, could become a management nightmare, as well as a roadblock for lower-income students.

An idea pushed by U. President Michael Young to explore other varied tuition rates based on class hours could be a more suitable solution for Utah, Finney added.

Young told members of the U. Board of Trustees last week that he wants to look at tuition through a private company perspective, charging higher tuition rates for peak hour classes and giving discounts for night or weekend courses.

"The university has been largely unimaginative about tuition," Young said. "Flat tuition isn't rational and universities have not broken away from that. This may not be the last of differential tuition."

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com