HARRISBURG — Students at Slippery Rock University will pay a slightly higher tuition bill this coming school year.

With the state budget still in limbo, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education board on Thursday approved a 3.5 percent tuition increase.

The increase will raise tuition for Pennsylvania students to $7,060 per year, up from $6,820, according to a state system news release.

It will generate $240 million of additional revenue for the 14 state system universities, which include SRU.

Officials hope that the state budget will include increased funding for higher education, said Kenn Marshall, higher education media relations manager.

“Essentially what the tuition increase does is, it covers about half of the budget shortfall that the system has. You can generalize that it covers about half of the funding gap at Slippery Rock, like at the other universities,” he said.

The state system last year voted to increase tuition by 3 percent. It has tried to keep its tuition increases close to the rate of inflation, despite suffering $270 million in state budget cuts over the past decade, Marshall said.

In March, Gov. Tom Wolf urged the state system to consider a tuition freeze in return for a significant state funding increase, However, the state has no 2015-16 budget because Wolf vetoed the budget that the Legislature passed.

Aides to legislators and the governor have slowly begun to talk about a revised budget.

At SRU, state residents comprised 89.96 percent of student enrollment for the 2014-15 school year.

Nonresident tuition is typically 2.5 times in-state resident tuition, though certain programs are allowed to charge more, Marshall said.

Annual expenses for state residents who live on campus will include about $9,840 for tuition and fees, including the newest increase, about $10,000 for room and board and about $1,500 for textbooks and supplies, totaling $21,340, according to SRU’s website.

SRU officials declined Thursday to comment on the tuition hike.

Last fall, SRU President Cheryl Norton said in her State of the University Address that the 2014 tuition increase saved 37 jobs at the university.