The price tag of a University of Connecticut education will increase by either 5.5 percent or 6 percent next fall under a new four-year tuition plan approved Monday by the school's board of trustees that would lower the undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio.

The final scenario will depend on the levels of future state funding for UConn, which presently cover about 28 percent of the university's budget.

If the annual appropriations remain steady, undergraduate, in-state tuition will cost 6 percent more in 2012 and be $11,290 a year - an increase of $620.

Tuition will then jump 6.3 percent in 2013, 6.5 percent in 2014 and 6.8 percent in 2015, reaching $13,346 a year.

Undergraduate room and board will increase as well, rising 3 percent in each of the next four years regardless of what the state does. For graduate students, room and board will rise 4 percent a year.

But if the state's appropriation to UConn grows by half a percent in each of the next four years, the tuition increases would be 5.5 percent in 2012, 5.8 percent in 2013, 6 percent in 2014 and 6.3 percent in 2015.

UConn President Susan Herbst said the added revenue is needed to hire 290 professors by 2015 and achieve the goal of lowering the student-to-faculty ratio for undergraduates from 18-to-1 to 15-to-1.

UConn had a 14-to-1 ratio in the mid-1990s, but total undergraduate enrollment has since grown more than 50 percent, to 22,472.

Herbst, who started at the university in June, said some students have been unable to graduate within four years because of difficulty getting into the classes they need for their degrees. The new faculty would create new openings in those classes.

"Professors in the classroom and the students they teach are the heart and soul of a university," she said in a statement announcing the tuition increase.

But several state legislators are questioning whether a better student-to-faculty ratio is worth the added costs for students and their parents.

Schools with smaller ratios often receive more selective rankings in U.S. News & World Report magazine's annual college guide.

State Rep. Ed Jutila, D-East Lyme, who has both a bachelor's and a law degree from UConn, said in an interview that he is conflicted about the board's decision.

He said he understands the benefits to being a premier research institution but also values UConn's ability to offer a solid education to students from diverse financial backgrounds.

"I'm not sure that it still will be a strong bargain at the end of that," Jutila said of the four-year tuition schedule.

Jutila also noted that many college students graduate with heavy loan debt and are having trouble finding jobs. When he was at UConn in the mid-to-late 1970s, undergraduates like himself were often able to graduate debt-free and pay their own way through school with part-time and summer jobs.

"I think (students) need to pay a fair share of tuition, but not to the point where it becomes so burdensome," Jutila said.

UConn officials say the school's costs would still be in line with other high-ranking state colleges. And under one early proposal, the annual tuition increase would have been 9 percent a year.

The new 2012 tuition and fees would place UConn as 26th among the country's top 53 public universities in costs, according to a university news release. UConn also said its graduates' student-loan default rate is 2.4 percent, compared to the national average of 7 percent.

Tuition for public four-year colleges increased by an average of 8.3 percent this year, according to a report by the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. In-state tuition costs average $8,244 at these schools.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had urged UConn to keep its tuition increase to under 2½ percent for the current academic year.

Malloy Spokesman Andrew Doba said the governor supports the university's new four-year plan as long as the money goes to hiring the new professors.

State Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's higher education committee, said she approves of how the tuition increases are directly tied to the goal of improving the faculty-to-student ratio.

"To me, UConn is still very affordable," Bye said. "There is always a balance between affordability and quality."

About three-quarters of UConn students received some form of financial aid in 2011, including loans, grants and scholarships, the university said.

j.reindl@theday.com