Virginia's community college board votes to increase tuition for the first time in five years
RICHMOND – For the first time in five years, tuition at Virginia’s 23 community colleges is being raised.
Thursday, the State Board for Community Colleges approved a 3% increase in tuition for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. That translates into an extra $4.61 per credit hour.
Incoming students will pay $2,379 for a typical 15 credit-hour semester.
The board cited uncertainty over the Virginia General Assembly ever acting on a budget for the decision to pull the trigger on a tuition increase.
The board had toyed with the idea of raising the rates as late as May but held off on the decision until the stalemate over budget amendments would be resolved possibly in June. After negotiations between House and Senate budget conferees broke down and lawmakers seemed poised to drag it beyond the June 20 primaries, the college board decided to go ahead with the increase.
“We reviewed the options of further delaying a decision, which would have adversely impacted our students, or we could move forward with a tuition increase to ensure continued high-quality instruction,” board chairperson Peggy Layne said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this increase will not fully cover all of the cost pressures faced by our community colleges in these inflationary times.”
The board was quick to point out, however, that even with the increase, a community-college education still was one-third the cost of attending a four-year public or private university.
“Our community colleges will continue to do everything we can to remain affordable, deliver high-quality instruction and support Virginians as they pursue better jobs and better lives through postsecondary education and training,” community college chancellor Dr. David Doré said in the statement.
The increase will only apply to tuition since associated fees vary among the colleges.
Also not going up are the tuition differential rates charged by eight of the community colleges, which includes Brightpoint Community College in Chesterfield County and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in metro Richmond. The rates allow the eight schools to address unique priorities not shared by any other schools.
There were no increases to the tuition differential rates charged at eight of Virginia’s 23 community colleges (Brightpoint, Germanna, Northern Virginia, Piedmont Virginia, Reynolds, Tidewater, Virginia Peninsula and Virginia Western). Tuition differential rates allow colleges to address unique and specific institutional priorities. The revised tuition rates, that are inclusive of the tuition differential, specific to these colleges will be posted on their websites.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Virginia's community colleges will see tuition increases this year
