The UC Board of Regents voted to approve the establishment of a nonresident student enrollment policy for university campuses in the board’s open session Thursday afternoon.

“This is an important and complex issue,” Regent John Pérez, who voted in favor of the item. “It’s a product of a more deliberative, more concentrated piece of work. I will support it because I think it represents very good work and it moves in the right direction.”

Beginning in fall 2018, university campuses will be capped at 18 percent nonresident student enrollment, unless their 2017-18 undergraduate student body already has a rate exceeding that level. At those campuses, which would include UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine, nonresident enrollment would be capped at no more than the levels of nonresident enrollment in the 2017-18 year.

Most board regents voted in support of the proposed policy, with Regents Hadi Makarechian and Gareth Elliott in dissent.

“What are we doing to this university? We are building a wall,” Regent Makarechian said at the meeting, explaining his vote against the proposal.