LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

The head of Arkansas' flagship university said the state must do everything possible to encourage more students to seek bachelor's degrees – possibly even by offering undocumented immigrants the lower tuition rates given to in-state residents.

Chancellor G. David Gearhart of the University of Arkansas stopped short of endorsing a proposal by an unopposed state senatorial candidate to allow in-state tuition rates for those without legal residency in the United States.

 Gearhart said most higher education officials want to be “frankly, forgiving if we can'' when it comes to students living illegally in the state.

``I don't think it would be appropriate for me to argue against any qualified student getting a four-year degree at our institution simply because of their parents,'' Gearhart told The Associated Press during an interview last week. ``To me, it's not really the student's fault that they came here and their parents had an issue with immigration. To me, that's penalizing the student.''

The chancellor, who took over as the university's top administrator July 1, described his decision also as one of necessity in a state that ranks 50th in the nation in the number of residents with bachelor's degrees.

``Our position is that we're in the business of education,'' Gearhart said. ``We know that by helping a student, any student, get a four-year degree is going to help the economy, it's going to help the state.''

In recent years, both the University of Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway had offered students in-state tuition rates even if they didn't list a Social Security number in their applications. In May, the head of the state's Department of Higher Education issued an order requiring schools to ensure students receiving in-state tuition were legal residents.

Since then, Gearhart said the university identified about 25 students who may be living in the country illegally and attending classes at UA. Officials at the school worked to find private donations to cover the gap between in-state and out-of-state tuition about a $4,500 difference per semester per student, Gearhart said.