US: California cuts weigh heavily on colleges

The doors to the California's newest medical school are already open, technically. A gleaming building with new labs is ready to house researchers and students. But when the state budget was approved last week, the plans to open the medical school at the University of California's campus were shelved for at least another year, writes Jennifer Medina for The New York Times.

The compromise to close the state's huge budget gap included cuts to state agencies of all kinds, but none were as deep as those to the state's public colleges and universities. The state's two systems were each cut by $650 million, and they each could lose $100 million more if the state's optimistic revenue expectations do not materialise. For both systems, the $650 million is roughly a 20% cut of operating money from the state.

This autumn, for the first time, the University of California will take in more money from student tuition than from state finances.
Full report on The New York Times site