By Peter Schworm Globe Staff

Many colleges in the Boston area and beyond are boosting financial aid this fall to help offset rising ­tuition costs, building on efforts that have accelerated since the recession amid sharp criticism of spiraling ­tuition and fees and crushing student debt.

Boston College, which charges more than $55,000 in tuition and other costs, will spend $90 million on need-based financial aid, a 6 percent increase. Northeastern University, where full price is $53,000, will dole out $188 million, up more than $30 million from two years ago. The state’s flagship campus, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where in-state students pay $23,000, will distribute $60 million, almost double what it spent in 2008.

Nationally, financial aid to undergraduates has risen sharply, from $21.9 billion in 2007 to almost $30 billion last year, as colleges continue to vie for cost-conscious students and respond to the growing need for assistance among hard-pressed families.

“Schools are trying to make up the difference,” said Justin Draeger, president of the ­National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “Even though more students are going to college, the amount of aid per student has gone up.”

Even as they increase overall financial aid, some are requiring certain students to chip in more.

Cornell University, after raising financial aid by nearly 20 percent annually since 2008, will begin next year to require students from families who earn more than $60,000 to take out loans and pay more of their work earnings. Currently, the threshold is $75,000.

MIT will require that students from families who make less than $75,000 a year contribute $6,000 a year toward the cost of their education, up from $4,400.