DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — University of Massachusetts trustees have approved a nearly 5 percent tuition and fee increase for undergraduates over Gov. Deval Patrick’s objections.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Kim Tunnicliffe reports

Tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates will now rise on average from $11,901 during this past year to $12,481 next year.

After their vote at UMass-Dartmouth on Wednesday, the trustees said the increase was needed “to protect quality and offset a decade of state budget cuts.”

They said they’d freeze tuition and fees in 2013 and 2014, if the state agreed to fund 50 percent of the university’s education budget, up from 45 percent this year.

Patrick said he hopes the state can eventually increase funding for higher education. But he said now is a “crummy” time for the increase, and that the five-campus system should instead search for new ways to cut costs.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.