Tag: Tuition increase

Tuition, Fees Going up at West Virginia University

Tuition and fees are going up at West Virginia University in the fall.

The university Board of Governors approved the increases Friday.

The Dominion Post reports that resident undergraduate tuition and fees will increase 4.7 percent on the Morgantown campus to about $4,000 per semester, while nonresidents will pay 4.9 percent more to $11,244.

For graduate students, tuition and fees will rise 5 percent to $4,500 for residents and 4.96 percent to $11,619 for nonresidents.

The board also approved an increase in housing and meal plans.

University of Charleston Undergrad Tuition Increasing by $3,000

University of Charleston President Ed Welch says a tuition increase will be offset by more financial aid.

Undergraduate tuition at the private university will increase by $3,000 to $28,900 a year.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Welch told students at a Wednesday meeting that the university will increase financial aid by $2,000.

Welch said graduate, online students and those enrolled at the university’s campuses in Beckley and Martinsburg won’t be affected by the tuition increase.

He also said fees for room and board won’t change.

The university’s Board of Trustees approved the increase in October. Welch said the move was prompted by several programs and additions, along with new federal regulations for employee compensation.

Marshall University to Raise Tuition

Marshall University’s Board of Governors was presented with a $116 million balanced budget Wednesday that included a tuition increase.

A tuition increase isn’t uncommon in the state’s higher education system today. Many of the states four year institutions are looking to tuition increases, at least in part, to make up for state budget cuts. Marshall University’s Board of Governors approved an increase of between 3 to 4% for students Wednesday. The increase is less than the 5% threshold that requires the approval from the Higher Education Policy Commission.

Beginning in the fall, tuition and fees for full-time resident undergraduate students will increase $144 per semester. Undergraduate students who live in the metro counties of Kentucky and Ohio will pay $226 more, while non-resident undergraduate students will pay $288 more. Tuition for most resident graduate students will go up $101 per semester, with metro graduate students paying $177 more and non-resident graduate students paying $250 more.

Marshall Interim President Gary White said they had to come up with new ideas.

“We started a zero-based budget process and that implies that you look at everything you do and you quantify not only the important functions, but what those important functions cost, you don’t look at the revenue side, you simply look at the expense side and once those are identified, then you have a target,” White said.

It’s the third year that not just Marshall, but all higher education institutions in the state have faced budget cuts from the state Legislature. How did Marshall deal with that cut and still find a way to get the budget balanced? And find money for employee raises? By using new ideas like White said. Among those was changing the student tuition structure, no longer are there individual lab and course fees. Students pay college fees along with their tuition and the extra money needed for labs comes from that group.

But White said they came up with other ideas like the implementation of a faculty group to examine the budget. The Marshall 20/20 group was created in the fall of 2013 by former President Stephen J. Kopp and has played a large role in identifying areas that can be cut. The group of employees and faculty is compromised from different University departments that are always studying the budget. 

Board Approves Tuition Increases at Three W.Va. Institutions

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission has approved tuition and fee increases sought by West Virginia University, Potomac State College of WVU and West Virginia State University.

The commission voted on the increases at its regular meeting Monday.

In a news release, the commission said the board voted 5-2 to approve WVU’s plan to increase in-state undergraduate tuition and fees by 9.7 percent for the 2015-2016 academic year. Out-of-state undergraduate costs will increase by 4.9 percent.

The commission voted 6-1 to allow West Virginia State to increase both in-state and out-of-state undergraduate tuition by 7 percent.

By a 5-2 vote, the commission approved Potomac State’s plan to increase in-state undergraduate tuition and fees by 8.1 percent. The school is raising out-of-state undergraduate costs by 5.5 percent.

W.Va. Higher Education Could See Tuition Increases in 2015-16 School Year

The Higher Education Policy Commission met at Shepherd University Friday to discuss tuition increases and a new reverse transfer policy.

West Virginia is one of three states that cut higher education funding in 2014 and 2015 consecutively. The others are Kentucky and Oklahoma.

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission briefly discussed tuition increases in the state at Friday’s meeting.

Right now, a higher education institution can increase its tuition 5% if it so chooses, but if it wants to increase tuition and fees more than 5%, the institution must get approval from the HEPC.

West Virginia University, West Virginia State, and Potomac State have requested a tuition increase of more than 5%. If approved, it would take effect in the 2015-2016 school year.

HEPC Chairman, Bruce Berry says one of the easiest ways for those schools to offset the loss of state revenue is to increase tuition and fees.

“So they’re placing the burden then on the student and or the student’s family,” Berry noted, “Makes it quite difficult for those individuals, especially from low-income families, to attend college.”

The commission will make a final decision on the tuition increase at a special meeting on June 22 in Charleston.

The HEPC also unanimously approved a reverse transfer policy that facilitates degree completion. The rule allows students who have transferred from a community college to a four-year institution, before receiving their associate degree, to be awarded an associate degree from the two-year college after earning enough credits while pursuing his or her bachelor’s degree.

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