AWC students will see increase of dollar per credit hour

Students at Arizona Western College will see an average tuition increase of a dollar per credit hour in the next academic year.

The college's governing board, at its meeting Tuesday, approved the hike as a means to offset inflation, costs associated with enrollment growth and state funding cuts, college officials said.

Effective July 1, students taking from one to 14 credit hours per semester at AWC will pay a tuition of $37 per hour, up from $36 at present.

Students taking 15 or more credit hours will pay a flat tuition of $555, up from $540.

Those increases amount to 2.8 percent.

Students 60 or over will pay $28 per credit hour, up from $27. Sixty and older students who take 15 or more credit hours will pay a flat tuition of $420, up from $405.

Area high school students who are simultaneously taking AWC classes will see their tuition increase from $21 to $22 per credit hour, up to 14 credit hours.

College officials said high school students don't typically take as many as 15 credit hours in a semester at AWC, but in the event they do, their flat tuition will be $330, up from $315.

Tuesday's action is in keeping with college board's policy of limiting tuition increases to $1 per year to soften the impact on student pocketbooks, college spokeswoman Michelle Scharff-Sims said.