MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- The investigation that determined West Virginia University gave the governor's daughter a master's degree she didn't earn cost more than $31,000, records reviewed by The Associated Press reveal.

That's more than it would currently cost a West Virginia resident to earn an executive master's of business administration degree, the kind at the heart of the scandal. At today's tuition rates, the 48 credit hours required would run an in-state student $28,560.

But all the expenses were paid by the WVU Foundation Inc., the school's private fundraising organization, so the burden is falling on donors, not taxpayers.

Nearly 81 percent of the total cost, or $24,750, was the amount of per diem payments to three out-of-state educators brought in to assist two faculty leaders in the probe, according to records obtained by the AP under the state Freedom of Information Act.