CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois trustees on Monday set tuition rates for the first two degrees offered by the new Global Campus and loaned the online institution $6.4 million to start classes.

Tuition for a nursing degree will cost 50 percent more than its traditional equivalent, while a master’s of education will cost much less.

“These programs are just the beginning of a dynamic, long-term effort that will make University of Illinois courses and degrees in many areas of study available to nontraditional students,” university President Joseph White said in a news release.

Trustees set in-state tuition for a Bachelor of Science from the university’s College of Nursing in Chicago at $18,495, which is 50 percent more than tuition for the traditional program. Out-of-state students will pay $20,550.

A master’s degree from the College of Education in Champaign-Urbana will cost $13,770 for in-state students, about 18 percent less than it would on campus. Out-of-state tuition will be $15,300.

Classes, which begin in January, will be taught by university faculty and other instructors supervised by faculty, said Chet Gardner, special assistant to White.

Faculty members have worried that the university might not be able to maintain the quality of its teaching through the online program, in part because not all of the instructors will be university faculty.

On Monday, the president of the University Senate Conferences – the faculty group for all the university campuses – said he was encouraged that professors will oversee instruction.

“As long as the professors are supervising, it shouldn’t be much different than what we do when I teach a class of 750 students and have 10 (teaching assistants),” said Orville Vernon Burton, an assistant history professor at the Champaign-Urbana campus.

The Global Campus is expected to eventually cover its own costs, but trustees agreed to the $6.4 million loan to help cover early expenses. Officials expect the money will be paid back over 10 years, starting in 2011, said university spokesman Tom Hardy.

Trustees approved the virtual campus earlier this year. White has pushed the plan as a means of generating revenue and expanding the university’s reach beyond its three traditional campuses – Champaign-Urbana, Chicago and Springfield.

University officials have said they expect the Global Campus to have 9,000 students by 2013, generating $10 million a year that could be used elsewhere in the university system.

Initial offerings are limited to the nursing and master’s of education degrees and two graduate certificates. But other degrees and classes are being developed, including in engineering, labor studies and business.

Also Monday, trustees decided to spend $31 million on an addition to the university’s National Center for Rural Health Professions in Rockford. The addition will include a new 200-student College of Pharmacy regional campus.