MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Middlebury College has set its comprehensive fee for the 2012-2013 academic year at $55,570, a 4 percent increase from the current year’s figure of $53,420. Middlebury’s comprehensive fee includes tuition, room and board. Adding in a mandatory student activities fee, unchanged this year at $380, brings the total to $55,950 versus $53,800 for the current year. Those numbers do not include books, personal expenses, or travel to and from the college.

The fee increase was approved by the board of trustees at its meeting on Feb. 18. As a percentage, the increase is in keeping with a college pledge to limit comprehensive fee increases to no more than 1 percentage point above the Consumer Price Index.

In February 2010, Middlebury adopted a policy that limits increases in the comprehensive fee to no more than 1 percentage point (100 basis points) above the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index, as determined at the end of the previous calendar year. President Ronald D. Liebowitz, citing the need to control the cost of a liberal arts education, proposed the “CPI + 1” initiative, and the strategy was endorsed by the board of trustees. The CPI rose 3 percent in 2011, according to government figures, which meant Middlebury’s fee increase for 2012-2013 would be no more than 4 percent.