BERKELEY - University of California officials, who closed the doors to hundreds of would-be students this month, are looking at the prospect of having to exclude thousands more next year.

Leaders of the nine-campus system, who are meeting this week in San Francisco, are studying a number of options, including raising fees by as much as $1,800 a year, which would come on top of a 40 percent fee increase this year that took the average fee to nearly $5,000.

Other options under discussion are having some students spend their first two years at a community college and charging higher fees to students from wealthier families.

Regents, who begin their regular two-day meeting today, will not make final decisions until they see what is in the governor's proposed 2004-05 budget in January.

However, lawmakers already have told UC and the California State University system that they will not be funding enrollment growth next year.

CSU officials have said they may deny admission to as many as 20,000 students this year.

UC recently denied admission to 1,500 community college students trying to transfer in for the winter term, saying the school did not have the resources to teach them. Next year, as many as 5,000 students may not get in because of the enrollment freeze.

This month's meeting, which will be the last for retiring UC President Richard Atkinson, carries some interesting political overtones.

Gov. Gray Davis, who generally does not attend the meetings, is the titular president of the board and is in the midst of a recall election. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, also a regent, is among the candidates running to replace Davis.

Today also marks the first meeting of Dolores Huerta, the 73-year-old co-founder of the United Farm Workers union who was recently appointed to the board by Davis.

Huerta has clashed with fellow UC Regent Ward Connerly over politics. She opposes Proposition 54, his current ballot initiative that would stop the state from classifying people by race, ethnicity or national origin in public education, contracting or employment. She also opposed Prop. 209, the successful measure spearheaded by Connerly in 1996 that barred considering race in public hiring, contracting and education.