The State Board for Community Colleges today approved a midyear tuition increase to offset state budget cuts.

Charles J. Phillips says he didn’t pay for his college education and you shouldn’t have to, either. Phillips, who wrote a book about how he did it, will offer a free seminar Saturday to share tips on how to finance a college degree through scholarships and grants. A Chesterfield County resident who works as a sales representative for DuPont, Phillips graduated from Prairie View A&M University in Texas in 2002.

A free workshop on how to pay for college will be held Saturday at John Tyler Community College’s Chester campus. The workshop for students and parents is sponsored by the Sallie Mae Fund, a nonprofit college-access organization. Students who are juniors or seniors can enter to win a $500 scholarship from the fund. The 90-minute event will begin at 10 a.m. at John Tyler’s Bird Hall, 13101 Jefferson Davis Highway. Registration at http://www.salliemaefund.org is recommended but not required.

Federal stimulus money allocated to Virginia’s public colleges and universities helped keep the average increase in tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates to about 5 percent for the upcoming school year. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia released a report yesterday showing that the average annual in-state tuition and all mandatory fees at Virginia’s 15 four-year schools is $7,984, up 5.3 percent from 2008-09.

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College students will pay a surcharge of $1.10 per credit hour to attend class in the fall. The State Board for Community Colleges voted to allow Reynolds to charge the differential on top of a 7.6 percent systemwide increase it approved yesterday. The decision means that community college students taking 30 credit hours will pay $196.50 more to attend school next year. The differential will add $33 to the annual cost for full-time Reynolds students.

Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday approved a 5 percent increase in tuition and fees that keeps its costs the lowest among the state’s doctoral institutions. But some members of the board of visitors questioned whether that is a status the university should try to maintain. The increase means an in-state undergraduate student will pay $338 more in tuition and mandatory fees for an annual cost of $7,117 for the next academic year.

The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg will increase tuition by 5 percent for the next academic year. Tuition and mandatory fees will increase by $338 to $7,112 for in-state students living off campus. With room and board, costs will go up by $760 for a total of $14,574 for the year. For out-of-state students living off campus, tuition and fees will increase by $898 to $18,840. With room and board, they’ll pay $26,302.

Tuition for in-state cadets at Virginia Military Institute will increase by 5.8 percent for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Grants: Grants are what some in the financial-aid industry call “free money.“ They don’t need to be repaid. Some are given by universities, but most come from federal and state governments. There are several types of grants, including grants for academic achievement, Pell Grants for students who meet need requirements, and federal work-study programs, which find students jobs to offset college costs.

Virginia Tech’s board of visitors is holding down tuition increases for next year. Tech, which had anticipated a 9 percent rise, has approved a 5 percent increase for tuition and mandatory fees for Virginia undergraduate students. That will bring their cost to $8,605, a $407 increase. Total average annual costs for a Virginia undergraduate student living on campus will rise from $13,674 to $14,429.

Your employer may offer tuition reimbursement, but in these trying economic times, how do you work up the nerve to cash in on the opportunity? Katy Piotrowski, author of the new book “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement,“ said at least half of American workers are offered educational benefits from their jobs. Still, many don’t know how to pursue these opportunities or justify them to employers during an economic downturn.

The University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary are crediting federal stimulus money for less-than-anticipated tuition increases for state residents next year. The U.Va. board of visitors this week approved a 5 percent increase for in-state undergraduates for the 2009-10 academic year. W&M’s board is set to approve a 5.4 percent rise in tuition and mandatory fees for Virginia students today.

In-state tuition and fees for undergraduates at the University of Virginia will increase by 4 percent next year. But the hike is lower than originally planned because of federal stimulus funding.

Parents will have an extra two weeks to lock in future tuition and fees for their children at Virginia public colleges and universities. The Virginia College Savings Plan announced today that it would extend the deadline for new prepaid tuition contracts through March 15. The enrollment deadline for the state program had been set to expire on Sunday.