For students whose families earn less than US$60,000 a year, Stanford will not charge for either tuition or room and board, officials at the prestigious university near San Francisco said on Wednesday.

Stanford is now among a small string of top-tier schools, including Harvard, Yale and Pomona College, that have taken steps in recent months to help middle-class families and, in some cases, households with incomes over US$150,000.

In December, Harvard overhauled its financial aid system so that families earning up to US$180,000 a year would pay only as much as 10 per cent of their income on annual tuition and fees. Yale announced last month it would spend roughly 37 per cent more from its US$22.5 billion endowment fund on financial aid for students and scientific research in 2008-09. Princeton in 2001 was a pioneer in the movement by eliminating loans in all aid packages and offering more grants to families with annual incomes as high as US$200,000.

Ms Karen Cooper, director of financial aid at Stanford, said: 'We heard very clearly from our parents, especially parents that considered themselves middle-income, that the amount that we expected from them was very difficult.'

However, Stanford said it could not say how any individual international student would be affected by the changes. 'We will continue to evaluate international applications on a case- by-case basis,' the university said on its website.

Tuition costs at US universities have soared in recent years to levels that can leave students and their families tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at graduation.

But only about two dozen schools in the nation can afford to join the race to so dramatically boost financial aid, according to Mr Terry Hartle, a senior vice-president of the American Council on Education. 'Most private colleges and universities simply don't have those resources,' he said.

The latest announcements have not silenced Congressional critics who want colleges to spend at least 5 per cent of their tax-exempt endowments a year.

The Stanford endowment exceeds US$17 billion and is the third largest of US universities, after Harvard (US$34.6 billion) and Yale. Princeton's endowment is about US$15.7 billion.

'I hope we're seeing a trend and a shift in thinking,' said Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. 'Spending a little more on students won't break the bank for well-funded schools.'

Recent declines in the stock market and real- estate values will probably make it harder for more schools to augment their financial aid. Experts say the newly enhanced aid at the affluent private colleges may add even more public cachet to those campuses, some of which accept as few as 10 per cent of their applicants.

Overall, the actions are reshaping the financial aid landscape for students entering college next year and could mean that, in some cases, attending some of the nation's wealthiest and most elite private colleges could cost less than going to public universities.

REUTERS, LOS ANGELES TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES