LOWELL - In the final action needed to set student fees for the coming fall, University of Massachusetts trustees voted today to institute what is essentially a 10 percent increase in mandatory fees.

Trustees voted at a meeting on the Lowell campus to keep tuition and mandatory student fee rates for the coming year unchanged from the 2009-2010 academic year. Last year, trustees approved a $1,500 increase in student fees.

The difference is that students are unlikely to receive the $1,100 rebate issued last year after stimulus funding from the federal government buoyed the five-campus system's operating budget. As a result of the rebate, student fees were raised by $400 last year - not the full $1,500 increase approved by trustees.

It will cost $11,732 for an in-state student living off campus to attend UMass Amherst for the 2010-2011 academic year, which begins in the fall. With the rebate, it had cost $10,632 for an in-state student living off campus to attend the flagship.

"At a time when students are applying to the University of Massachusetts in record numbers, we are working hard to maintain quality and affordability, the very characteristics responsible for this strong surge of interest," said UMass President Jack M. Wilson, noting an uptick in applications to the university system's five campuses in a prepared statement.

In addition to raising fees, UMass will also increase its contributions to financial aid. The university system's financial aid budget will grow by $12 million, bringing the total available to $115 million for the coming academic year.