Students may soon be paying nearly 10 percent more for their education at IVCC.

An $8.25 per credit hour tuition increase will be voted on by the Board of Trustees on Feb. 21.

Pending board approval, tuition will go from $76.13 per hour to $84.38. With the universal fee (a fee added to each credit hour for technology and student activities) remaining at $7.39, the total per hour cost will be $91.77, an increase of 9.9 percent.

School officials said the state average for tuition and universal fees combined is presently $103.89. IVCC’s combined tuition and universal fee of $83.52 per hour is the lowest of all 39 Illinois districts

The proposed tuition increase was approved by the audit/finance committee of the board in January and is awaiting full board action.

The committe recommended the tuition increase after hearing financial forecasts for the district from controller Pat Berry and Cheryl Roelfsema, vice president for business services and finance.

Presenting the five-year forecast,  Berry projected the district’s EAV would remain flat, Exelon’s EAV would remain at $525 million all five years, and credit hours would decrease at a conservative rate of 5 percent in 2013, 2 percent in 2014 and then remain flat for 2015-17.

With state funding predicted to be flat, Roelfsema said an $8.25 tuition increase will be needed to balance the budget.

“With state funding and EAV projected to be flat for the next five years, tuition must absorb any increases in expenditures,” she said.

In addition, changes were made to fees on 220 courses: 154 were increased, 54 decreased and fees were added to two existing courses and 10 new courses.