The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved tuition and fees for the 2015-16 academic year.

The board approved a 3.9 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees for both resident and non-resident undergraduate students. Tuition and mandatory fees for Virginia undergraduate students will increase $468, or $12,485 annually, and out-of-state students will pay an additional $1,081, or $29,129 annually.

Room and board fees will increase by 3.8 percent, or $302 per year, for a total of $8,226 annually.

“We remain sensitive to the increased burden students and their families must carry as state support for higher education continues to decline,” said Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands. “In setting tuition and fees, we must continue to balance the need to maintain the quality and value of a Virginia Tech degree with growing financial obligations that we are required to fund.”

Following the most recent legislative session, the state imposed several mandatory cost assignments to the university, including increases in faculty and staff retirement contributions, health care costs, costs of state required initiatives, and compensation increases for faculty and staff.

These required cost assignments are in addition to the $6.1 million operating budget reduction from the state's General Fund for each of fiscal years 2015 and 2016; a reduction that can be been partially mitigated by the state’s investment of $1.97 million in additional support for operations and for growth in the enrollment of Virginia undergraduate students.

However, to provide additional support to students from lower income families, Virginia Tech will increase its contribution to student financial aid by more than $1.3 million in the coming fiscal year, bringing total institutional support to $17.1 million.

The university will further invest in its Funds for the Future program, which shelters returning students from tuition increases based upon family income. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, family income levels will be expanded, providing 100 percent coverage for tuition increases for students who have a total family income of less than $50,000. Previously, that total family income level was set at less than $30,000.

In addition, students who have a total family income of less than $100,000 will be eligible for partial protection from future tuition increases.

Another university financial aid program, the Presidential Scholarship Initiative, which provides full four-year scholarship to 50 incoming Virginia students each year, will be expanded to include 55 students per year.

In fiscal year 2014, Virginia Tech students received more than $126 million in grant aid and scholarship support.

The 2015-16 tuition and fee package will continue the 10 percent discount for summer session and winter session to help students complete degrees at an accelerated pace during non-traditional times.

When adding tuition and mandatory fees with average room and board, the total cost in 2015-16 for a Virginia undergraduate student living on campus will be $20,711 and a non-resident living on campus will be $37,355.

Next year, tuition and fees for resident graduate students will rise by $531 to $14,116 and for non-residents by $1,097 to $26,981.

The total annual cost to Virginia and Maryland veterinary students will be $23,094, an increase of $646, and non-residents will pay $49,646, an increase of $1,090.