Researchers aren't the only people at universities who will benefit from the federal stimulus package. Students who need help paying rising tuition costs in the midst of escalating unemployment and a tighter credit environment will get some help as well.

University officials in the New River Valley said they welcome the additional funds but are still determining their effect as deadlines loom for acceptance and financial aid decisions for the next academic year.

The stimulus includes $200 million for the federal work-study program and $17 billion to raise the maximum Pell Grant award and erase the program's deficit. Pell Grants are a major source of federal need-based aid, generally given to students whose families earn less than $40,000 a year.

Barry Simmons, director of scholarships and financial aid at Virginia Tech, said his office will be awarding financial aid packages to students two or three weeks from now. The effect of the Pell Grant money is fairly clear, Simmons said, with the maximum award increasing from $4,731 to $5,350 next academic year and then increasing again the following year.

The really good news for students, Simmons said, is a stipulation in President Obama's proposed budget that would make Pell Grants an entitlement and tie the annual increase in award amounts to the Consumer Price Index. The buying power of the grants have diminished for several years as college costs have outpaced increases in the maximum award.

The effects on work-study programs are not as clear. But there's always guessing involved with work study, Simmons said. Students at Tech who qualify can earn up to $1,500 a year through the program. Simmons said the increase would likely allow Tech to offer more work-study positions.

"It's difficult to predict because not all students accept their award of work-study, so we play a constant adjustment and guessing game," he said.

Work-study positions are paid for with both federal and university funds. The program's growth would mean committing more university money at a time when state budget cuts have public colleges scrambling.

But Norleen Pomerantz, vice president for student affairs at Radford University, said the university has made additional funding available to offset increases in the minimum wage in the past rather than cutting work-study positions. And she expects Radford would make additional funds available to leverage new federal work-study money.

"It's a priority," she said of the program.

About 40 percent of Radford students receive some form of need-based aid, and Pomerantz expects next year will see a significant jump in the number of students who ask for financial aid adjustments during the year because of special circumstances, such as a parent losing a job.

Simmons, who is chairman-elect of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said the number of students nationwide who have filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is 20 percent higher than this time last year.