While others talk about the affordability of a college
education, Ashland University, Ashland, OH, is doing something about it.
Annual full-time tuition at the school, which has an
enrollment of 2,200 students, will drop $10,000 to $18,908. Grant and
scholarship aid will also be reduced, but the new lower tuition will still be around $6,000 less than a student at The Ohio State University will pay.
“Over the past decade, everyone in higher education has
danced around the subject of the rising cost of college,” said AU President
Fred Finks in a press release.
“Yet few have been willing to tackle the issue and the complications involved.”
When Concordia University, St. Paul, MN, reduced its
undergraduate tuition by $10,000 it saw a 30% increase in applications, while its enrollment went from 183 freshmen and 91 transfer students in the
fall of 2012 to 257 freshmen and 167 transfers this fall.
“Really what is going on here is we are cutting back on
the discount rate and creating a transparency in our pricing,” said Concordia
spokesman Jason DeBoer-Moran.
At the same time Ashland is making news for cutting fees,
the Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey students should brace for a $200,000 bachelor’s degree as the
undergraduate fees at some state colleges will top $40,000 this year.
