College tuition continues to increase year after year, with student loan debt mounting and affecting the ability of the middle class to invest in the future. That is a bread-and-butter issue for many private Christian universities.
As the Associated Press reports, the average cost of annual tuition among elite private schools in America now reaches $90,000 to $95,000. At the University of Southern California, tuition has risen to $95,000, and at Harvard University it has risen to $91,000, while at Vanderbilt University tuition has climbed to nearly $100,000.
State and federal governments are attempting to address the negative impacts of increasing tuition but continue to face challenges in rolling out solutions, from failed debt forgiveness plans, poorly rolled-out financial aid websites and post-pandemic economic challenges.
Private Christian schools
The increased costs of higher education also affect Christian universities, which historically have been known for their good values and their good value.
In the upcoming 2024-25 school year, tuition at Baylor University will be $58,080; at Southern Methodist University it will be $67,038; at Texas Christian University it will be $61,740 and at Mercer University it will be $42,312.
Among private universities in the South — where a majority of historic faith-based schools are located — the average tuition from the previous 2023-24 school year increased between 2.5% and 9.76%. In the past decade, tuition has increased in a range from 25.26% to 60.32%.
Due to a combination of inflation, high demand and decreasing state dollars, private universities have seen their annual tuition increase to $56,190 on average.
On April 19, the board of trustees of Mercer University in Macon, Ga., gathered for their biannual meeting, discussing and announcing a planned tuition increase for the upcoming 2024-25 school year. Mercer will advance a modest increase of 3.5%, in keeping with the school’s strategic plan to keep its education affordable for a diverse range of students.
President Bill Underwood speaks to a student assembly at Mercer University. (Mercer photo)
The Mercer model
Mercer’s Executive Vice President Penny Elkins told Baptist News Global private schools have a greater challenge in balancing the needs of tuition and operating expenses than public schools, which are eligible for state funding to supplement the education experience. Mercer’s funding comes entirely through tuition and fundraising, which means the school must be highly disciplined with its money to stay affordable and avoid aggressive tuition hikes.
Penny Elkins
This is a problem for the majority of Baptist schools.
“We’re always planning and thinking about tuition and fees,” she said. “We’ve been disciplined in our tuition pricing models and commensurate student loan debt over the last decade. We have to have purposeful meetings and say we can’t pass all the rising costs down to our students. But we can’t educate them for free.
“We often say at Mercer that we have to be lean and agile at every moment. Higher education is always changing, and there are these national narratives about cost increasing and the value of education. There are all these stories about rising student loan debt. What we’ve been able to do is create a sustained model to serve a diverse population by being thoughtful and measured about tuition pricing. It can be done but it has to be purposeful.”
Mercer’s strategy has been effective. Tuition in the 2014-15 school year was $33,780 and increased 25.26% to $42,312 for the 2024-25 year. This 10-year tuition increase is lower than any of the other premier private universities in the South. Mercer’s complex pricing model also has helped gradually decrease the average cumulative debt at graduation for students even as their tuition has increased.
Baylor University President Linda Livingstone presents a diploma to a graduate May 6, 2021.
Why this matters
While Mercer’s frugality shows it is possible for a university to buck trends, the majority of private and public universities continue to put forward larger tuition increases. Some also offer increased financial aid. At Baylor University, for example, more than a third of the $1.5 billion raised in the current Give Light Campaign goes to student scholarships.
Some other schools show larger percentage increases because they started off with below-market rates and have had to catch up. For example, Samford University has increased tuition and fees by 46% over the past decade but its 2014-2015 rate of $27,485 was the lowest among premier private universities in the South. Its rate for next year, $40,150, remains the lowest among that same set of Southern schools.
Nationwide, Forbes reports, nonprofit private schools have increased tuition from $19,360 to $38,070 in the past three decades, compared to public schools where the average tuition increased from $4,160 to $10,740.
Scholarships aside, students are taking on more debt in order to get a degree.
As of April 2024, the total outstanding unpaid student loan debt in the U.S. is $1.75 trillion, which is affecting multiple generations’ ability to invest in the future, buy homes and build families. That debt is due, in large measure, to the increasing costs of higher education. It is no longer possible for students to pay their own way through college while working part-time jobs.
This has soured much of the public’s view of higher education, with an increasing number of companies no longer requiring college degrees on job applications. ZipRecruiter reports the number of businesses requiring a bachelor’s degree for employment dropped from 18% to 14.5% since 2022.
Between 2019 and 2021, total undergraduate enrollment decreased 6.6%.
However, college degrees still correlate highly with greater financial success and access to high-paying jobs. The annual median earnings among young people with a high school education ($36,000) versus those with a bachelor’s degree ($60,000) shows just how much a difference education makes in earnings.
A recent study from the American Educational Research Association shows college degrees have higher average returns on investment than the stock market, at differing rates for men (9.06%) and women (9.88%).
College degrees have higher average returns on investment than the stock market.
With college degrees still being necessary for most high-paying jobs, the demand for college is still increasing. The percentage of Americans with college degrees has increased from 21.3% in 1990 to 37.7% in 2022, nearly doubling.
Addressing the problem
Many schools have attempted to solve the financial challenges of higher education internally, with Wellesley College near Boston offering financial aid to nearly 60% of its student body.
The federal government also has attempted to address the issue. The U.S. Department of Education rolled out a new online form — called FAFSA — to make access to federal aid easier, but it has been hampered by delays and technical issues that have resulted in numerous colleges delaying their application deadlines while the issues are addressed.
Office of Federal Student Aid COO Richard Cordray even announced he will step down in June following the bungled rollout. On May 24, the department released an update saying it “has made significant progress to address known issues with the form” and “will continue to work to make improvements to the FAFSA experience for students, families and our other key partners.”
The Biden administration also made student loan forgiveness a major issue. It has put forward several significant attempts to push student loan forgiveness through the executive branch, both in the leadup to the 2022 midterms and this year amid the 2024 presidential election. Biden’s previous attempt to forgive $400 billion in student loans was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2023, with the court arguing the executive branch lacks the authority to unilaterally waive student loan debt. On May 22, Biden announced plans to cancel $7.7 billion in student loan debt for 160,000 Public Service Loan Forgiveness clients.