By Brittany Britto STAFF WRITER
The University of Texas System will cover full and partial tuition for more than 14,000 UT-Austin undergraduate students from middle- and low-income families starting in fall 2020, the Board of Regents announced Tuesday.
A $160 million tuition endowment aims to make what’s billed as the state’s leading flagship research university more affordable.
The UT System’s regents voted unanimously during a meeting Tuesday to establish the permanent endowment, which will expand UT-Austin’s existing Texas Advance Commitment program to cover tuition and fees for 8,600 instate students whose families have financial need and household incomes up to $65,000 a year.
It also will provide assured financial assistance to 5,700 students whose families earn up to $125,000 annually.
The university will use 4.9 percent from the endowment’s earnings for program funding in 2020, university spokesman J.B. Bird said. The board sets the payout annually, which has historically been between 4.5 and 5 percent.
The university still will offer aid through federal Pell Grants and the Texas GRANT program, and will supplement existing aid with grants and scholarships offered through the endowment.
Incoming, current and transfer undergraduate students at UTAustin are eligible.
“College affordability is one of the most core issues facing families of middle-and low-income, and being able to provide this financial support will enable more students to come to UT-Austin and get a high-quality degree from UT and go out and serve their community,” UT-Austin President Gregory Fenves said.
Fenves began initiatives for middle-income students starting in 2016, pledging $7.5 million a year in financial aid and another $5 million in 2018, the same year he launched Texas Advance Commitment.
The program, funded by the state’s Permanent University Fund, has assisted more than 4,000 students, providing full tuition and fees to students whose families earn up to $30,000 in household income and guaranteed financial aid to qualified families earning up to $100,000, according to a recent release from UT-Austin.
PUF money is from oil and gas royalties earned on state-owned land in West Texas and is used for the UT and Texas A&M systems.
The regents’ recent decision, however, will pour more money into the program and expand the income bracket that qualifies students and their families for assistance.
About a quarter of UT-Austin’s more than 36,000 in-state undergraduates would qualify for full tuition to be covered under the plan for the 2018 and 2019 academic school years, university officials said. The program will not, however, begin until fall 2020.
Fenves emphasized that the endowment prioritizes students and invests in the state’s future.
Chancellor James B. Milli-ken specifically praised the use of the state’s PUF, labeling it a demonstration of “the strong commitment of the Board of Regents and UT-Austin to the values of public higher education.”
“There is no greater engine of social and economic mobility than a college degree, and this initiative ensures that more Texans will benefit from ahigh-quality UT-Austin education,” Milli-ken said in a written statement.
“I can’t think of anything more consequential that I would be part of than this action and providing this kind of assistance,” said Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife, who has been on UT System’s board for two years.
“This type of program is the type of program that would put Kevin Eltife through college,” he said, adding that he graduated from college with several loans that took him a while to pay off.
“I turned out fine. I’m not complaining at all,” he added. “But this is the type (of) thing that will truly help Texas families in a meaningful way.”
The cost of tuition and fees for a Texas resident at UT is about $10,300 a year as an undergraduate, which can be a major investment for students and their families. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2017 that the median household income in Texas was $59,206 that year.
The endowment announcement is timely, as 2020 presidential hopefuls debate student loan debt and forgiveness. It also follows a similar initiative by Rice University, which announced in 2018 that it would offer full-tuition scholarships and grants to undergraduate students whose family incomes fall between $65,000 and $130,000 a year and who qualify for need-based financial aid. Rice’s program goes into effect in the fall.
The private Houston university also has offered scholarships to cover at least half of tuition for students who come from families with an income of $130,000 to $200,000, and grants that cover tuition, fees, and room and board for those whose families make below $65,000.
Houston Community College announced this month it would offer free college degrees to recent high school graduates. The HCC program, for students who don’t have state or federal grants, will cover tuition and fees as well as provide a book allowance of up to $500. brittany.britto@chron.com twitter.com/brittanybritto