The Texas Legislature on Monday gave the state's public universities free rein to increase tuition in a move that legislators say will help the state combat mounting budget shortfalls.

The bill, expected to be signed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, ends decades of legislative control over tuition rates.

No tuition increases are planned for the fall, administrators said, but with a slumping economy and mounting enrollment, they might not be far off. Some legislators and student representatives said they expected a 50-percent increase in tuition over the next two years.

Mark G. Yudof, chancellor of the University of Texas System, said that the system's Board of Regents had not decided how to use its new power.

"No tuition increases will be approved without fair consultation on campuses," he said. "We'll be meeting with leaders of student government. We're going to have serious, serious consultation."

He added, "I would say, particularly to students, that you'll get a fair shake."

Students are not convinced. A coalition of student organizations at campuses around the state -- including the Young Conservatives of Texas and leftist student groups -- had fought tuition deregulation tooth and nail, with student-government resolutions and protests.

David Rushing, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas, said regents are not accountable to the public. "An elected legislature should be setting the rates rather than an appointed board of regents," he said. "There is no incentive for them to keep the rates down."

Critics say students from middle-class families have the most to lose in a deregulated system. Wealthy students will be able to afford the higher rates, and poor students can rely on financial aid.

In response to concerns raised since the proposal was raised in January, legislators added a provision that if tuition is raised beyond the level recommended by legislators, 20 percent of that money must go to student aid.

State Sen. Florence Shapiro, the Republican who led the push for deregulation in the Senate, said critics' fears of jumps in tuition were exaggerated. Legislators created an oversight committee to evaluate how universities perform under the new system, she said.

"This group of oversight legislators will be watching the progress of these institutions," she said. "It will be a matter of looking at the numbers, and looking for what is just out of bounds."