While students at Virginia's colleges and universities face mounting tuition costs, institutions of higher education all over the country also are charging their students more money to attend school.
Tuition increases have averaged 4 percent at public colleges over the past five years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Yet next year's tuition is expected to increase by a much larger percentage at many colleges and universities.
"A lot of other states are having budget problems," said Colette Sheehy, University vice president for management and budget. These problems have caused many public schools to raise tuition due to a lack of state funding, Sheehy said.
Two schools most affected by tuition increases are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Iowa. North Carolina's tuition will increase by 20.9 percent for in-state students, while Iowa will charge 19 percent more for in-state students next year.
Last week Texas A&M University announced that it will charge $30 more per credit hour, the largest tuition increase in the school's history, while the University of California is considering a 10 percent tuition increase.
Given the national trend of tuition hikes, the University should remain competitive in attracting top-notch students, Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn said.
"I don't expect [tuition increases] to affect our applicant pool," Blackburn said.
The University's tuition will rise by less than 10 percent for out-of-state students and by between 5 and 9 percent for in-state students, Sheehy said.
The administration will present a tuition increase proposal to the Board of Visitors on April 5.
Blackburn said he views the increases as a necessary evil.
"It's about time we had a tuition increase because we need the funds," he said.
But students at other institutions are not resigned to the prospect of higher costs for education. Students from public colleges and universities throughout Wisconsin have reacted with more outrage to tuition increases than most.
Last week hundreds of Wisconsin students gathered at the state capitol in Madison to protest the 8 percent increase for in-state students and 23 percent increase for out-of-state students.
The University of Wisconsin had taken the drastic step of completely halting undergraduate admissions in response to budget cuts and tuition increases. The school's administration reversed their decision Friday after state officials offered reassurances that they would revisit the issues.
Prompted by the General Assembly's state budget, George Mason University, Virginia Tech and Radford University all announced plans for tuition increases last week.
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