On a 13-3 vote, UC regents approved a committee recommendation to raise fees 25% and gave system President Richard C. Atkinson the option of going 5% higher. The state's other major public university system, California State University, approved a 30% fee increase this week.

Administrators said they had no choice in the face of a state budget crisis that has sliced hundreds of millions of dollars off university funding.

The UC vote added $960 to annual fees and followed a $405 increase approved this spring. The average fee is now about $4,800 for in-state undergraduates — with additional miscellaneous campus fees, the average rises to $5,274. Fees also rose for graduate and out-of-state students.