Private colleges are offering students discounts on tuition and fees at record-high rates, according to the annual Tuition Discounting Study, released on Thursday by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The average tuition-discount rates for the 2018-19 academic year are estimated at 52.2 percent for first-time freshmen and 46.3 percent for all undergraduates, according to the study. That means that 46 cents of every dollar in tuition and fees are used for financial aid.
The new estimates continue an upward trend that has persisted for more than a decade. Both the share of students receiving institutional grants and the size of those grants have increased.
The average grant for freshmen has climbed to $20,255 from $10,586 in the 2008-9 academic year, an increase of 91 percent. Published tuition and fee prices have increased by 47 percent in the same period. And nearly 90 percent of freshmen received such a grant this academic year, compared with 82 percent a decade earlier. An average grant covered 59 percent of a freshman’s tuition and fees.