Barriers to Expanding Access to Higher Education:
The Realities of Cost & Debt

Overview | The Facts | Promising Approaches | Download | Return to the State of Higher Education in Vermont Home | Return to Access to Higher Education Home

OVERVIEW

The financial burden of higher education is heavy and growing, especially given recent events in the world’s economies. Colleges and universities raise tuition in an effort to counteract shrinking government funding and disproportionate growth in the cost of the goods and services they use most, e.g., energy, salaries, and health insurance for faculty and staff. Scholarships and grants have failed to keep pace with rising student costs. Understandably, many Vermont families hesitate to take on large loans needed to cover college.

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THE FACTS

Government Support Lags

  • Low levels of state and local funding in Vermont mean that more of an institution’s costs are covered by tuition, placing a greater burden on students and their families. In Vermont, contributions from the state and local municipalities made up just 14.4% of all revenues received by postsecondary institutions in 2006, compared to the national average of 39.9%. Vermont’s level of contributions to overall revenue was the lowest of all states and the District of Columbia.
  • Vermont has the fourth-lowest state appropriation for higher education per capita puts Vermont second to last in the nation.
  • While federal Pell grants given to low- and middle-income students covered 80% of college costs in the 1970s, today these grants cover just 40% of college costs.

Costs Rise

  • Nationally, college costs are compounded by the rising prices of other goods and services essential to running these institutions. Between the 2001-2002 and the 2006-2007 school years, tuition and fees jumped 35% for in-state students at public, four-year colleges, the largest tuition increase during any five-year period of the past 30 years.
  • Family income in Vermont is not keeping pace with rising costs of higher education. While the median family income in Vermont rose 4% between 1999 and 2007, tuition and fees at four-year colleges across the country rose 79% during the same period.
  • In-state tuition and fees at the University of Vermont, the state’s only four-year public university, are the some of the highest in the nation for comparable institutions.

Debt Expands

  • Vermont students and their families incur 25% more debt for a bachelor’s degree than the national average, ranking Vermont second to last in the nation for affordable education.
  • Student debt in Vermont continues to grow. The average student debt in Vermont jumped from $19,660 to $23,839 between 2005 and 2006, a 21% increase that ranks as the third-highest average student debt load in the nation.

Download the data supplements to learn more about cost and debt barriers

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PROMISING APPROACHES

Committing to Student Support

The College of St. JosephThe College of St. Joseph in Rutland provides students with high-quality education at an affordable price. Since its inception in 1956, the independent, private liberal arts college has made a commitment that students who want to attend and are accepted to the school will not be deterred by financial concerns.

About 65% of the college’s approximately 500 students are from Vermont, the highest percentage among independent colleges in the state. The college works to make education affordable, procuring financial aid for students in need, as well as streamlining institutional expenses, developing additional revenue streams, and adopting savvy business practices to control costs. Approaches include contracting out college facilities after school hours and during the summer, and maintaining a career-oriented curriculum that uses fieldwork to bridge classroom studies and career opportunities. The latter approach enhances student appeal to potential employers and reduces operating costs.

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Increasing Aid to Vermont Students


The Vermont Student Assistance CorporationThe Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) provides information and financial resources for Vermont students to pursue postsecondary education, within or outside the state. One of the only state financing agencies for students in the country, VSAC is a public nonprofit that provides grants, loans, scholarships, and career and education planning. Beyond administering financial resources, VSAC provides college planning resources including guidance counselors to serve the secondary school system, implements early intervention and outreach programs to middle and high school-age students, and conducts research to better understand postsecondary aspirations, challenges, and motivations among students and parents. By building relationships with students as they progress through school, VSAC helps families plan and prepare for college, and is positioned to provide more effective aid to students.

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Opening Access to Opportunities

Champlain CollegeThrough its Vermont First scholarship program, Champlain College  is increasing the number of Vermont residents enrolled in the school and opening postsecondary access to students whose families have little or no experience with higher education. The program provides aid to Vermont residents who are the first in their families to attend college.

Vermont First is one way the college takes on a challenge familiar to many Vermont institutions—striking a balance between the numbers of out-of-state and Vermont students enrolled. While out-of-state student enrollment is necessary to help offset the lower tuition offered to Vermont students, it can also pose problems by leaving fewer spaces for Vermont students. In recent years, the majority of Champlain College’s student body has been composed of out-of-state students. Through Vermont First, Champlain College seeks to create opportunities for first-generation college students and help build Vermont’s workforce.

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