As the cost of higher education increases, and as discussions wax and wane about dramatic hikes in student loan interest rates possible yet this year, one thing is clear: The cost of degree attainment is a national math problem that, unfortunately, does add up – compounded year after year at about 4 percent.
Consider: According to the Project on Student Loan Debt, in 2011 two-thirds of all graduating college seniors in the U.S. carried student loan debt averaging $26,600. In 2010, the national average debt for graduating college seniors was $25,250, compared to year 2000 when it was $17,350. That’s a 45 percent increase in 10 years.
In Indiana, the average student debt in 2011 was $27,500 – about $1,000 higher than the national average. If trends continue, a Hoosier child born this year into the class of 2035 could earn an in-state four-year bachelor’s degree wrapped in $72,425 in student loan debt. And that’s not taking into consideration a possible upsurge in interest rates.
The trend and pace of increase in student loan debt – and overall college costs, for that matter – raises the barrier for Indiana’s students who want to go further in their education and become the next generation of leaders in their fields. Moreover, it limits the potential for Indiana to strengthen its workforce internally and the opportunity to fill the state’s high-quality jobs with adequately degreed and prepared Hoosiers.
That’s why it’s more important than ever for Indiana’s colleges and universities to pool our collective brain power, and find ways to make higher education more cost accessible.
We need more colleges and universities to follow in the footsteps of Purdue University in instituting tuition freezes that give students a “breather” to rising costs. And in the footsteps of IUPUI of Fort Wayne in creating cost-effective fully online programs, like the new online nursing program recently launched there. Or cut tuition rates instead of increasing them, like Harrison College has for the 2013 winter term.
Innovation and efficiency have been front and center with WGU Indiana since our inception in 2010. It’s the reason our tuition has remained at a flat rate of about $6,000 per year and why it’s important to us to utilize a competency-based educational model that allows our students to accelerate through material they already know, saving them time and money.
And it works. By comparison with the national average, while two thirds of all WGU Indiana students take out student loans – aligning with the national average – their average student loan debt upon graduation is just above $19,000.
What this all means is that it can be done. What this doesn’t mean is that quality must be sacrificed in the name of saving money. In fact, WGU Indiana was recognized by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education for its excellence in academic quality.
Indeed, with some of the best college and university programs and academic minds in the world in our home state, we have tremendous potential to educate the workforce that will lead a bright future for Indiana’s economic growth. Let’s work together to think differently about the cost of higher education and make sure the class of 2035 – and certainly those to come before – can afford the price tag for a bright future.
Allison Barber
Chancellor
WGU Indiana
