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Tuition increases are about as welcome as the flu--and recently they've been about as widespread, too. Most Harvard graduate schools announced last week that they would follow suit with the College in increasing next year's tuition an average of 7 per cent.

The increases hit students at the Dental School and the Kennedy School of Government hardest. Those unlucky scholars will next year pay 9 and 10 per cent more, respectively.

"The economics of the situation are compelling," Thomas O'Brien, financial vice president, said yesterday. "You can't continue to increase faculty salaries and purchases without increasing income"--and if enrollment remains steady, tuition increases are the only alternative, he said.

The Dental School originally asked the Corporation for a 15-per-cent increase, but will have to make do with the 9-per-cent hike the Corporation granted. The boost brings the school's annual fee to $5750, up from $4250 in 1976-77.

Final figures for next year's Law and Medical School fees are not yet available.

Med School officials have not yet announced the specific increase they will request. However, Dr. Daniel C. Tosteson, the school's dean, said this week Med School fees will rise to make up for an expected decrease in federal support.

The Law School's tentative tuition proposals are already before the Corporation, but its final proposal will wait until the school's administration has conferred with faculty and students, O'Brien said.

Increases in Harvard's fees have followed the national inflation rate, O'Brien said, and that rate, now at about 6.8 per cent, will probably remain "compelling" in the foreseeable future.