Cal State trustees, meeting in Long Beach, approved a student fee hike Wednesday, the same day that leaders of the state's other public university system, the University of California, were considering fee increases.

At CSU, the nation's largest four-year university system with more than 400,000 students, fees for undergraduates will be going up 10 percent, taking the annual bill, including miscellaneous campus fees, to about $3,400.

UC was considering raising undergraduate fees 7 percent for a total average bill of about $7,300.

The fees are part of a long-term budget pact the two systems struck earlier with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

System officials say they need the increased revenue to maintain quality and even with the increases their fees are lower than peer institutions in other states.

But students say the costs of living in California are high, putting the total annual bill of attending college out of reach for many.

by Michelle Locke, Associated Press, March 14, 2007