Brown University is eliminating tuition for students whose parents earn less than $60,000, after decisions by fellow Ivy League universities to bolster financial aid as their endowments grow.

The university, in Providence, R.I., said on Saturday that it also planned to substitute grants for student loans in the financial aid packages of students whose families earned less than $100,000 a year. The new program cuts reliance on loans for all students regardless of family income, the university said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Brown also announced plans to increase tuition by 3.9 percent for the 2008-9 academic year to $36,928. With room and board, the costs are $47,740 for one year.

“Since 2001, Brown has made financial aid for our students one of our highest priorities,” Brown’s president, Ruth J. Simmons, said in the statement. “Today, we take another major step forward to ensure that our nation’s best students from lower- and middle-income families can attend Brown and graduate without the enormous burden of college debt.”

Brown’s action follows similar moves by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Stanford.