Across the country, the costs of higher education have been on the rise for years, and nationally, experts expect that trend to continue in 2008.

In fact, the College Board estimates that tuition at the nation’s four-year public universities will increase by an average of 6.6 percent this year.

One state which won’t ask students to pay more, however, is Maryland.

This session, the state’s legislators increased public higher-education funding by 9.7 percent, which gave the schools enough budget flexibility to offer attendees a break.