The University of Nevada, Les Vegas, is ending its tie-up with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) after what it claimed to be a disagreement over fees, local daily Straits Times reported on Monday.

The university said it has unsuccessfully asked for more money to run its popular hotel administration degree course in Singapore. SIT described it as a non-renewal of a five-year contract between them.

The move has led to uncertainty among those enrolling this August as part of the final batch of 150 students. They fear that their education may suffer, though teaching is due to continue until 2015.

The university said that it is considering pulling out of Singapore, too.

Richard Linstrom, associate dean at the Singapore campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and managing director, said it decided to end the tie-up after SIT refused its request for higher fees. He would not reveal how much more it had asked for.

The university's William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration is ranked among the best in the field in the United States. In Singapore, courses are currently held at a campus in the National Library Building. International students pay about 70, 000 Singapore dollars ($45,161) for a three-year course. SIT students finish it in about two years. Their fees, subsidized by the government, are about 20,000 Singapore dollars ($16,393).

Linstrom said the consideration to pull out of Singapore had nothing to do with the news last year that the university was considering bankruptcy in the United States to meet a funding shortfall of $47.5 million.

If it decides to pull out, it will be the second American university to do so. In November, New York University Tisch School of the Arts announced plans to shut its campus here by next year because of financial problems.