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Virginia undergraduates at public four-year colleges and universities in the Commonwealth will experience an average increase of 5.2% in tuition and all mandatory fees. That translates into $544 for the coming academic year. Virginia students attending community colleges will see a 4.6 percent increase, paying about $180 more per year.

This compares to increases of 4.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, for the 2013-14 academic year.

“We know that education pays — in lifetime earnings and benefits to society,” says SCHEV Director Peter Blake. SCHEV is the Commonwealth’s coordinating body for Virginia’s system of higher education. “This report reminds us that education also costs and that students and parents increasingly are carrying the weight.”

Analysis of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities in Virginia must include a discussion of the funding received from the General Assembly. The period covered by this Report represents a particularly complicated scenario. By statute, each institution’s governing board of visitors has the authority to set tuition and fees. Typically, this process takes place between March and May each spring — after the General Assembly acts to produce a budget for the coming year and in time for students and parents to plan for any necessary increases in tuition and fees. However, because of the legislative budget impasse this year, the boards were forced to set student charges for the 2014-15 academic year without knowing the level of state support that would ultimately be made available to them.

Additional information and metrics about tuition and fee rates are available in the full report here.

The report includes a breakdown of increases at individual colleges and universities in Virginia as well as comparisons to other states.

“A college education is a long-term investment that pays benefits over a lifetime,” says Blake.

By: Contributing Author

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