Dive Brief:
- Only 29 out of 95 eligible private higher education institutions in New York have opted into the state's new Enhanced Tuition Awards program this fall, reports lohud. Passed alongside the free Excelsior Scholarship public college tuition plan this spring, the new financial aid initiative enables the school and the state to split a maximum of $6,000 in tuition costs for income eligible students.
- Low participation rate likely reflects reservations over the program's financial structure, which requires institutions to freeze a student's tuition for as long as the student receives the award. Even if the school later opts out, they must continue to freeze awards recipients' tuition, which will increase the administrative work load to track multiple tuition levels, reports Inside Higher Ed.
- The program will be phased in over three years, and it also requires students to live and work in the state after graduation for the same number of years as they had received the award. The program is slated to receive $19 million in funding from the state for the first year.
Dive Insight:
For other states, such as California, that are considering options for free college plans or other aggressive financial aid initiatives, New York's program offers insights into the concerns private institutions have with such plans. Funding from states can help higher education institutions expand their aid options, especially as more students are incapable of affording rising tuition costs, which lower enrollment and retention rates. For instance, the Excelsior Scholarship is helping CUNY and SUNY schools close funding pool gaps while at the same time benefiting low and middle income students that were unable to afford tuition.
Similar benefits are intended for the Enhanced Tuition Awards program, but private university and college leaders are seeing a costly downside to support the program, not only for themselves, but also their students. Critics of the Excelsior Scholarship have argued that while the program offers students free tuition, it could also saddle them with overly restrictive constraints in the future, as the requirement to live and work in the state after graduation.
New York's experimentation in free or reduced tuition plans in both private and public schools highlight some of the challenges that come with reducing the cost of higher education for low-income and minority students. As other state begin to adopt tuition proposals, education leaders can be proactive by paying attention to what's happening in New York and learn from both successes and shortcomings in order to partner with their respective legislators to develop equitable funding plans that help all parties.