PASADENA >> Pasadena City College announced a new program on Wednesday that will allow local students to attend the college tuition-free for one year.

The program includes all high schools within the college district’s boundaries, including all of Pasadena Unified’s high schools and private high schools.

The only requirement for students is that they graduate from one of those high schools and enroll in PCC for the fall semester immediately following graduation. Local students who enter military service immediately following high school will be eligible if they enroll at PCC the first semester after completing service.

To keep their eligibility while enrolled at PCC, students must maintain a 2.0 grade-point average and enroll in nine units per semester.

While the program currently finances tuition for only two semesters, board President Ross Selvidge said the board is looking at costs like transportation and books to be covered in the future.

The program, called “PCC Promise,” kicked off with an event at the college’s reflecting pool.

“The point we want to make is that we want to make this education accessible to every single student who comes to Pasadena City College,” said Superintendent President Rajen Vurdien said to students and faculty at the event. “We do not want students not to be able to attend school because they don’t have the money to pay for tuition.”

Former PCC President and California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott, who leads the Pasadena City College Foundation’s effort to engage the community, said the program is especially necessary for the types of students PCC serves.

“Whatever your high school record might have been, we are saying to you, ‘We invite you to come and pursue your education,’ ” Scott said.

Southern California has “some wonderful four-year institutions,” Scott said, but “you have to be in the top 10 or 15 percent in order to get into one of those institutions. What are we going to do with the other 85 percent? We’re going to say to them, ‘At Pasadena City College, we welcome you.’ ”

PCC is not the first local or private college to offer reduced tuition to students in nearby cities. The announcement follows others by the University of La Verne and Azusa Pacific University earlier this year — both said they would offer guaranteed admission to qualifying students from local school districts.

In ULV’s announcement of its admission program in January, the university said it would begin accepting students from about a dozen San Gabriel Valley school districts starting in the Fall 2017 semester. A university spokesman said the requirements for students would vary each year, but that ULV would consider both a minimum GPA and scores on standardized tests.

Just two weeks ago, APU made a similar guarantee to local students, though the announcement was limited to just the Charter Oak Unified School District. But a university spokesman said APU was negotiating partnerships with 10 other school districts.

The announcements also come at a time when schools in California’s higher education system are raising tuition for students.

In January, the University of California Board of Regents approved a 2.7 percent tuition and fee hike for all nine of its undergraduate campuses, the first such increase since 2011. And in March, the board of trustees of the California State University system voted to increase tuition by $270 per year.

Here’s the complete list of public high schools included in PCC’s announcement:

• All Pasadena Unified high schools

• Arcadia High School

• Arroyo High School

• La Cañada High School

• Rosemead High School

• San Marino High School

• South Pasadena High School

• Temple City High School

And here’s the list of private high schools in the area where students will be eligible:

• Alverno Heights Academy

• Arroyo Pacific Academy

• Flintridge – Sacred Heart Academy

• Flintridge Preparatory School

• La Salle High School

• Maranatha High School

• Mayfield Senior School

• Polytechnic

• Rio Hondo Preparatory School

• Saint Francis High School

• Southwestern Academy

• Westridge School