Full-time Bermuda College students will pay tuition fees in September for the first time since 2007.Students will now pay $1,072.50 a year to attend the Stonington campus, compared with $1,605 prior to the free tuition initiative in 2008.Free tuition had previously been introduced in 2008 after being promised by the then Premier Dr Ewart Brown in the 2007 Throne Speech.The new fees were announced by Bermuda College President Duranda Greene at a press conference yesterday morning.The fees make up 50 percent of their total programme cost approximately $532.50. Students also have to pay $540, which is a standard fee covering administration and technology costs and fees for using the library.Sheridan Talbot, vice president of Student Affairs, said there would be some financial assistance options for students in need.Students can also get help paying for textbooks through the college's book loaner programme. Sponsors who have assisted students in the past are also being encouraged to come forward.Student government president Antonio Belvedere said students were initially “not favourable” of the increase.“However it seems like something necessary right now, especially with the current budget climate,” he said.“Unfortunately, we have a bigger issue as many students are struggling to find part-time and summer employment, including myself.“The increase may be difficult for some, but the Bermuda College has reinstated financial aid and the increase is a reasonable compromise considering the [cost of] college tuition overseas.”He believed the increase was “not only necessary” but “appropriate” to keep the college operating at the standard to which students have become accustomed.Dr Greene said Government had been hit by the economic recession and Bermuda College, which had its budget slashed by $2 million, “was not immune” to this.She said school faculty and staff had also been affected by the cuts and have agreed to take a pay freeze this year, in addition to six days of unpaid leave.The school has also postponed some of its capital projects, she said.Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons said it was “unfortunate that Bermuda College and Bermuda College students are further victims of the PLP Government's poor budgeting and mismanagement of the country's finances”.But he said the new Bermuda College tuition was still “quite low” compared to two- and four-year institutions overseas.“So hopefully it will not be a significant deterrent to those students who are committed to pursuing higher education and certificate programmes,” he said.lUseful website: www.bercol.bm.