CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Students attending any of West Virginia’s four-year public colleges and universities will see their tuition increase this fall.
Institutions looking to raise tuition by more than 5 percent for the 2014-15 academic year were approved by the Higher Education Policy Commission on Monday, as required by state law.
Those schools seeing the highest increases include Fairmont State University at 8.3 percent, West Virginia University at 7.8 percent and Concord University at 7 percent.
Tuition at Marshall University, West Virginia State University and Shepherd University will increase by 5 percent.
Overall, the average tuition increase of the schools overseen by the HEPC, which exclude private and community and technical schools, is $320, or 5.4 percent.
That makes the average college tuition in West Virginia about $6,200 per year for state residents.
WVU is the most expensive public university in the state at $6,960 for residents and $20,424 for out-of-state students.
HEPC officials unanimously approved the tuition proposals on Monday, but Commissioner David Hendrickson said he worries West Virginia will not succeed at getting more students enrolled if tuition continues to climb year after year.
