Virginia community college students will see a $6.55 per credit hour increase in the fall, a tuition increase that was alleviated by nearly $40 million in federal stimulus funds.
In a unanimous vote last week, the State Board for Community Colleges set the 2009-10 in-state tuition and mandatory fee rate at $92.70 per credit hour. As a result, a full-time student taking 30 credit hours will pay an additional $196.50 for the academic year. The previous rate was $86.15 per credit hour.
Board members said the increase was essential to serving the record-setting number of traditional students and laid-off workers turning to community college, according to a Virginia Community College System news release.
More than 16,000 new students began attending a Virginia Community College in the last two years, with enrollment during the recently concluded spring semester up more than 7 percent. Across the state, 30 new community college buildings are opening – more than one million square feet of instructional space – to meet the growing need.
“The federal stimulus money the VCCS is receiving from the General Assembly is greatly reducing the size of this tuition increase,” said Megan Beyer, chair of the board’s budget and finance committee, in a statement. “Without that federal money, it would have taken a tuition increase twice as big just to keep the lights on and instructors in the classrooms to serve these students.”
VCCS will receive $19.4 million for each of the next two years under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“This tuition rate is reasonable and responsible,” said Rob Shinn, chairman of the state board, in a statement. “And it allows our colleges to balance the affordability and accessibility demands that are being placed on them.”
The board’s tuition decision is in accord with a commitment to keep the community college tuition and fee rates at one-half or less than that of the comparable rates at Virginia’s four-year universities.
According to the release, VCCS mandatory tuition and fees are currently one-third of the average tuition and fees charged by four-year institutions. The comparable average tuition and fee increase for a full-time student at a four-year school in Virginia is $402.
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