The University of Utah junior in biomedical engineering had a scholarship her first two years of college, but now must rely on student loans and a part-time job to fund her tuition, housing and other costs.

"I am struggling to pay for everything," she said Thursday. "I know [tuition increases] are necessary because professors aren't getting paid enough and buildings have to be maintained, but I'm not extremely happy."

She joins other Utah students in grumbling about tuition costs, which are outpacing national increases by between 2 percent and 5 percent, depending on the type of institution students attend, a new College Board report shows.

Higher education officials are aware of the problem.

"We know it affects a number of students when tuition does increase, so we try to be very careful about it," said Mark Spencer, Utah System of Higher Education associate commissioner for finance.

He acknowledged the five-year trend of Utah tuition increases outpaces national increases, but viewed over 10 years, percentage increases are about the same in Utah and nationwide, he said.

In Utah, public school tuition has increased an average of about 8 percent annually since 2001, but Spencer hopes to see tuition increases stay below 8 percent in the near future.

However, "I don't see increases being under 6 percent unless there's a dramatic change in the relationship between tuition and tax-funded appropriations," he added.

Higher education advocates argue the Legislature has not fully funded enrollment growth for several years, forcing the Board of Regents and individual institutions to raise tuition.

However, the Legislature did appropriate about $2 million in one-time funding for need-based financial aid.

"If that money is continued, we'll have a pretty good way to compensate students," Spencer said.

"We've historically been a low-tuition and low-aid state. If we increase tuition, we hope to increase aid commensurately."

He also reminded students that even though tuition is increasing faster than the national average, Utah colleges and universities are still cheaper than many of their peer institutions.

The national cost for a public four-year institution was $5,836 while Utah's cost was $3,891.

That's one reason U. student Tran is willing to work extra hours to go to school.

"The U. is an amazing school, and it's very underrated in the national rankings," she said.

"I'm very glad I came here. I feel like I'm getting good value for the quality of education."

smcfarland@sltrib.com