Between the annual costs of rising inflation and the Utah Legislature’s continued failure to sufficiently fund higher education, it is a sad fact of every college student’s life that tuition will get more expensive.

For the first time in quite a while, however, the higher education higher-ups are recognizing the equally inherent fact that with higher tuition must come more financial aid.

While some students are lucky enough to come from prosperous, or at least adequate, financial backgrounds to the extent that they do not need any monetary assistance in paying for their college education, such is not the case for all.

Fortunately, those in this latter group are finally seeing a little extra help come their way.

After the state Board of Regents snuffed a plan by the Utah Council of Student Body Presidents to cap tuition increases at 8 percent, the former group is at least taking steps to make amends with a move that will boost the state’s financial aid coffers.

The Regents had planned to raise tuition statewide by 3 percent in order to compensate for the aforementioned shortcomings. In addition to that increase, U President Bernie Machen would impose an additional 6.3 percent increase on U students, thereby making next year’s tuition bill 9.3 percent higher than this year’s.

However, the Regents instead boosted their increase to 3.5 percent for all students. Machen responded by dropping his increase to 5.8 percent?keeping the overall U increase at 9.3.

But that is not the most salient point.

What is, however, is that the extra 0.5 percent increase coming from the Regents will go directly to fund financial aid for struggling students. So, while students will still pay more next year, those who can’t pay by themselves will at least find their burden eased a bit.

The Regents are to be commended for realizing that students cannot foot the bill for all the education-funding shortcomings by themselves, that with tuition increases must come aid increases. The Regents, admirably, have taken a step to equalize that process for the first time.