Updated at 5:18 p.m. Revised to include comments from Texas A&M and a UT student from Dallas.

AUSTIN — In a move that will more than double the number of students getting a free ride, the University of Texas flagship campus will cover full tuition for any student whose family income totals $65,000 or less beginning in fall 2020.

UT-Austin officials estimate the new financial aid commitment will cover tuition and fees for an estimated 8,600 students, or 24 percent of the undergraduate student body. Graduate students and out-of-state students are not eligible, but transfer students are.

On Tuesday afternoon, the University of Texas System Board of Regents voted unanimously to move $160 million from the state's Permanent University Fund — a state endowment for the UT and Texas A&M systems — for the purpose of UT-Austin's financial assistance program for low- and middle-income students.

The move will build on UT-Austin's Texas Advance Commitment program, which started in fall 2018 and covered full tuition and fees for students with families earning up to $30,000 a year. That program covered about 4,000 students.

The change puts UT on level footing with Texas A&M, which has provided free tuition to students from families with income of $60,000 or less since 2011.

UT-Austin President Greg Fenves thanked the regents and Chairman Kevin Eltife for making the university more affordable and accessible to lower-income students.

"Chairman Eltife understands that college affordability is one of the most critical issues affecting all Texans," Fenves said. "Thanks to his leadership and the board's action, this new endowment will go a long way toward making our university affordable for talented Texas students from every background and region."

UT officials noted that the expansion of need-based financial assistance extends to middle-income families. The school noted that the average median household income in Texas in 2017 was $59,206.

Tuition and fees at UT for an in-state undergraduate student are $10,314 a year.

The regents' allocation will also finance partial tuition support for students from families with incomes up to $125,000, based on a sliding scale.

Dallas resident Zachary Henry, a 20-year-old incoming junior at UT-Austin, said the tuition coverage will make a world of difference to the university's most vulnerable students.

Henry said he almost couldn't return to school next semester because he was told in April that part of his financial aid had dried up. After organizing a protest and gathering more than 500 signatures on a petition to draw attention to the needs of the poorest students, the financial aid office restored his grant.

But he said he wondered what would happen to low-income students who don't have the will to take on the system.

"Money is a very personal subject, and a lot of people feel defeated by it," he said. "This guarantee is absolutely fantastic."

How it works

The financial commitment to cover tuition for students is an ongoing promise. The allocation will create an endowment in which the money is invested and interest and earnings are used to fund the tuition costs in perpetuity. Fenves estimated the cost of the Texas Advance Commitment program will be about $20 million in the first year.

The university's new tuition program will supplement student awards covered by federal Pell grants and the TEXAS Grants program — a need-based state scholarship that is capped at $5,000 per student.

The TEXAS Grants program is the state's signature financial aid program for public universities, but those state funds are stretched thin. The award, which went to 76,801 students in 2018, covered only 55% of the average amount of statewide tuition and fees.

The $160 million allocation to establish the endowment comes from the Permanent University Fund, an endowment created in 1876 from lands set aside in West Texas that generate income from oil and gas revenue, land rentals, royalties and leases. The fund has a market value of $22.3 billion. Two-thirds of the fund allocations go to the UT system, and one-third goes to Texas A&M system, per the state constitution.

On Tuesday, the A&M system received an allocation of $83.3 million. Laylan Copelin, vice chancellor for marketing and communications, said discussions are still taking place to determine how to spend the money.

But A&M officials said they have made accessibility and affordability a priority for Texas residents for years.

"It is important for Texans to have better access to public education. I applaud The University of Texas for following our lead," President Michael Young said in a prepared statement responding to UT's announcement.

The Aggie Assurance program paid for tuition for 6,726 students whose families earned $60,000 or less last year.

And last April, A&M's Board of Regents set aside $30 million for one-time hardship grants for the system.

Rice University last year announced it would pay for full tuition for any student whose family earned between $65,000 and $130,000. Students from families earning less than $65,000 get tuition plus mandatory fees, room and board.

In 2008, UT-Arlington introduced the "Maverick Promise" to cover tuition for students from families with income less than $65,000. However, the university ended the program after a few years.