Virginia's public colleges and universities will add about 6,000 slots for in-state students this fall, Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday as he signed the "Top Jobs" legislation that seeks to more closely align higher education and economic development.
About two dozen college students watched the signing of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011, which also will establish metrics for students to gauge the value of their degrees in the workforce.
The ceremony was held at the headquarters along the James River of Dominion Resources Inc., whose CEO,Thomas F. Farrell II, is chairman of the governor's higher education commission.
Farrell, former rector of the University of Virginia, told the commission after the signing that he hoped next year the General Assembly would "once and for all set aside the idea" of mandating in-state and out-of-state student ratios.
He credited funding incentives in the legislation for the increased in-state slots for the next academic year, including at U.Va. and the College of William and Mary. Both schools are frequent targets of complaints to lawmakers by parents who say out-of-state students take slots their children should have received.
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