Virginia community college tuition rates unchanged

RICHMOND — The State Board for Community Colleges decided to maintain the current in-state tuition and mandatory fees for the 2019-2020 academic year.

The Board’s decision means tuition will remain at today’s rate of $154 per credit hour and keeps community college tuition and mandatory fees at approximately one-third of the comparable costs of attending Virginia’s public four-year universities.

“The Virginia General Assembly deserves a great deal of credit for helping us avoid a tuition increase,” said Robin Sullenberger, chair of the State Board for Community Colleges. “Their decision to increase General Fund appropriations gave us the resources necessary to meet the inevitable operating expense increases without asking our students to pay more. We applaud their efforts during the 2019 legislative session.”

The State Board also maintained the existing tuition rate for out-of-state students, which is $351.60 per credit hour. The Board approved a technical fee increase for capital cost recovery that applies only to out-of-state students who make up approximately five percent of the total enrollment of Virginia’s Community Colleges.

According to Jeffrey Kraus, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Relations of Virginia Community Colleges, the State is required to increase the cost of tuition for out-of-state students, but some students with special privileges, such as veterans, may be eligible to pay in-state tuition despite being out-of-state students. The technical fee increase charges out-of-state students extra money in order to make up for losses due to special privileges.

For the second year in a row, there were no increases to the tuition differential rates charged at eight of Virginia’s 23 community colleges (Germanna, John Tyler, Northern Virginia, Piedmont Virginia, Reynolds, Tidewater, Thomas Nelson, and Virginia Western). Tuition differential rates allow colleges to address unique and specific institutional priorities – such as allocating more money toward advising programs.