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Diving overview:
- Private, nonprofit colleges and universities have discounted tuition more than ever for the 2023-24 school year, increasing it by an average rate. For first-time, full-time students, it's 56.1%, according to preliminary estimates from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
- This is up from 54.8% the previous school year and represents a steady increase over the years. The discount rate for all undergraduate students is also expected to rise from 50.8% in the previous year to 51.9% in 2023-24.
- Meanwhile, after adjusting for inflation, net tuition and fee revenue for first-time full-time undergraduate students decreased 1% in the 2022-23 academic year. According to NACUBO, this decline follows a whopping 5.4% decline in this revenue source over the previous year.
Dive Insights:
NACUBO's latest research is A sample of 325 private, non-profit colleges and universities.It shows that tuition discounts have been rising steadily for at least a decade. Kara FreemanNACUBO's president and CEO described tuition discounts as a key strategy to make private college affordable for students and their families.
“This year’s research shows that while institutions continue to deal with economic and pandemic-related headwinds, affordability remains a priority as they work to ensure higher education is accessible to students,” Freeman said in a statement.
But some higher education experts have criticized the way colleges communicate prices to students.
Phillip Levine, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, recently argued that college tuition is “an increasingly poor indicator” of college costs. What students actually pay. Over the past decade, private school tuition has continued to rise, but the net price of college (what students actually pay) has stayed flat, Levine said.
“The current system for setting and communicating college tuition is not working,” Levine wrote in an April report. “We can’t expect students to make sound decisions about investing in their education if they don’t understand how much college really costs.”
Few families actually pay for college tuition. According to NACUBO's latest research:t 83% The percentage of undergraduate students receiving institutional grants in the 2023-24 academic year increased slightly from 82.8% the previous year.
Universities use several sources to provide institutional support to students. In the 2022-23 school year 53.3% According to NACUBO, institutional grants come from general funds, unplanned donations and other sources, with the college operating tuition-free and funded from non-dedicated sources.
Institutions provided an additional 30.3% of institutional support through university reserves, 11.3% through endowment withdrawals, and 5.1% through gifts or fundraising.
NACUBO surveyed colleges and universities about the strategies they would use to increase enrollment. Almost two-thirds of respondents 61.2% said they were using new retention efforts, followed by 57.5% and 56.6% focusing on financial support. Expand your recruiting practices or explore new strategies.
Just under half of respondents (44%) said they were changing or adding to their academic program.