Topeka ? Incoming freshmen at Kansas University would pay 3.4 percent more in tuition and fees than the last freshman class, under a proposal unveiled Wednesday.

That would mean a resident freshman arriving in the fall will pay $5,224 per semester, which is $170 more than the last freshman class. An out-of-state freshman would pay $12,437, which is $429 more than the last out-of-state freshman class.

At KU, freshmen enter a compact, meaning that they will have the same tuition rate for four years.

Because of this compact system, two-thirds of returning KU undergraduates will have no tuition increase.

“Our goal is to balance the strong desire to maintain access with the equally strong need to ensure that the education students receive at KU prepares them for successful lives and careers,” said KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.

Under the proposal, KU’s tuition and fees would rank as ninth lowest of the 34 public universities in the Association of American Universities.

The proposal also would increase resident graduate student tuition and fees by 4.3 percent; and 4.9 percent for KU Medical Center students.

The proposed increases will help pay for merit pay increases of an average of 1.75 percent to key faculty and staff, Gray-Little said.

Gray-Little noted that higher education funding in Kansas remains below pre-recession levels. In the current fiscal year, KU will receive $249 million in state funding as compared with $273 million in 2008.

Last year the Legislature cut funding to KU by nearly $14 million. This year, the Legislature restored less than one-third of that cut.

The tuition and fee proposals were unveiled before the Kansas Board of Regents, which is expected to approve rates in June.

Among the other regents schools, the tuition and fee increases for in-state undergraduates would increase 5.2 percent at Kansas State University; 7.5 percent at Wichita State; 5.6 percent at Emporia State; 5.5 percent at Pittsburg State; and 2.5 percent at Fort Hays State.