Delegate: Increase tuition for slowpoke in-state students

RICHMOND – Virginia’s in-state college students should be required to pay the more expensive out-of-state tuition rates once they exceed the 120 credit hours necessary to graduate, a member of the House of Delegates proposed Tuesday.

Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, said that too many qualified applicants – particularly in Northern Virginia – are being rejected from schools such as the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary.

Part of the problem, Albo said, is that an estimated 20 percent of Virginia’s public college students take longer than four years to graduate, thereby taking up an enrollment slot that could have gone to another in-state student.

Under a draft amendment to Albo’s HB 1696, in-state students would pay in-state tuition rates for the first 120 credit hours. Once they exceed 120 credit hours, they would pay the higher rates. The proposal makes an exception for undergraduate degrees requiring more than 120 credit hours.

At UVa, in-state undergraduate students pay $9,490 in tuition and fees each year. Out-of-state students pay $29,790.

Of UVa’s 13,760 undergraduates, 68.5 percent are from Virginia.

Albo said his idea would motivate college students to stay focused on their schoolwork and graduate within four years.

“It would force them to work harder and get out in four years,” Albo said. “And if they don’t, they have to pay.”

Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax County, said universities are relying too much on out-of-state students, as they receive $20,000 more per student than they do for in-state students.

“What we have now is the University of New Jersey, Charlottesville campus,” Hugo said.

Del. Clarence Phillips, D-Russell County, disagreed. He said Virginia’s public institutions of higher education are stretched thin already. If the state wants to allow more in-state students to attend, he said, the state ought to pay for expansion projects. The real issue, he said, is a lack of capacity.

“Are we prepared to put up the money for expansion?” he said. “Are we prepared to put up the money to hire professors? Are we prepared to put up the money to build new buildings?”

Moreover, Phillips said, most college students are not taking longer than four years to graduate because they are goofing off. They are often taking a bit longer because they cannot get into the courses they need to graduate. Or they might be working their way through college, requiring them to take fewer classes as they juggle a job and school.

Carol Wood, UVa’s spokeswoman, declined to comment on Albo’s proposal. However, she said, UVa’s graduation rate is “among the highest in the country.”

UVa’s four-year graduation rate for in-state students is 84.4 percent, while the out-of-state four-year rate is 83.9 percent. The overall six-year graduation rate is roughly 94 percent, she said.

Of the class that entered UVa in fall 2003, 16 percent – or 490 students – did not graduate within four years. Of these, 96 were enrolled in a five-year program at the Curry School of Education. Of the remaining 394 students, equaling 12 percent of that year’s class, only 168 returned to UVa for a fifth year of studies.