(a) In the interest of encouraging qualified veterans of the armed forces of the United States who are Virgin Islands residents to further their formal education and in recognition of the value of the service rendered by such veterans, those veterans of the armed forces of the United States who are domiciliaries of the Virgin Islands and who entered the armed services in the Virgin Islands, or who were domiciliaries of the Virgin Islands but entered the armed services in another jurisdiction while temporarily residing in that jurisdiction and who otherwise meet the qualifications and admission standards of the University of the Virgin Islands are hereby granted free tuition to such institution for a time period not to exceed 128 semester hours.
(b) The benefits in subsection (a) of this section shall not be interpreted as applicable only to undergraduate tuition, but may be applied to any graduate program of the University of the Virgin Islands. Any veteran who qualifies under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section may attend graduate classes of the University of the Virgin Islands without paying tuition therefor, not to exceed 36 semester hours for non-doctoral graduate classes and 92 semester hours for doctoral classes, in addition to the limitations on semester hours in subsection (a) of this section. In addition, any veteran may enroll and attend the University of the Virgin Islands for certified and certificate courses for a maximum of 200 continued educational units.
(c) The Director of Veterans Affairs, Department of Labor, shall establish the eligibility of veterans for the free tuition granted by subsections (a) and (b) of this section and shall make direct tuition payments to the University of the Virgin Islands from funds appropriated for that purpose upon certification from the University that the veteran has been accepted as a student and has completed registration procedures; Provided, however, That no veteran shall have his tuition paid under this section if such veteran is entitled to have such tuition paid by any Federal funds made available to such veteran for college tuition.