A hike in tuition and fees for the upcoming academic year will force Tyler Blumenthal and other South Dakota college students to rethink how they will pay their bills.

"As a student, you plan on certain tuition amounts and with the increase you are not able to plan sufficiently," said Blumenthal, a junior metallurgical engineering student at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

"I planned on scholarships nearly paying for tuition next year, but now I am going to have to take funds from other places," he said.

Tuition and fees will climb by an average of 5.9 percent, or $374 for the average in-state, full-time undergraduate student, under new rates set by the state Board of Regents on Friday. That student will now pay $6,694 for tuition and fees.

Regents President Harvey Jewett said the rising costs are driven by a 3.7 percent inflation rate and student enrollment growth that has hit an all-time high.

"Additionally, there has been no new funding from the state this year," Jewett said in a release following Friday's meeting in Aberdeen. "In fact, our general fund budget for the coming year was cut by 1.5 percent."

Blumenthal said he understands the state of the economy is a reason behind the increase. Still, he is limited in his earning potential. He already works construction full-time in the summer and part-time during school and has a research internship position.

"I would work more," he said, "but it depends on my class schedule what I can do."

Sierra Slovek, a sophomore civil engineering major at Mines, said the increase might upset some students.

"I know a few people that are struggling now, and pretty much everyone I know has a job," she said.

Slovek works about 18 hours a week at the school distributing mail for the dorms and working the front desk in the Surbeck Center lobby.

She said the hikes would add to students' loan burden and may make some rethink whether they could afford college.

"It could cause some people to not come at all, because that is quite a big percentage," Slovek said, "and it might make them take a lot longer to finish school, because they will have to spread out their payments."

The regents said South Dakota universities remain a bargain in the region.

Including housing and a meal plan, a 32-credit-hour South Dakota undergraduate would pay just over $11,000, making staying home the second least expensive option among South Dakota and its six neighboring states. South Dakota is behind only Wyoming in higher education costs for the region.

Jewett said the new rates meet the board's goal of keeping the annual increase to between 5 percent and 6 percent.

"We are very mindful, however, of the current economic conditions and believe that an increase of less than $375 next year will be manageable for our students and their families."

Mines junior Lance Hildebrandt, an industrial engineering major, said the payoff of his degree will make the tuition worth it.

"I don't think it is that big of an issue, because tuition at most of the schools in this country is growing way faster than it is in the Board of Regents schools," he said.