Public Flagships Are Less Affordable Than You Might Think

Public flagships are among the best deals in higher education. But a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy shows that students from wealthier families are far more likely to take advantage of those deals than lower-income students.

“A big piece of evaluating affordability is looking at students’ ability to pay for college, especially at the flagship institutions in their state,” said Mamie Voight, vice president for policy research at the nonpartisan institute. “In many cases, flagships offer them the greatest chance of graduating and strong outcomes after graduation in terms of their labor market success.”

To judge how affordable flagships were to low-income students, the researchers drew on national data to create hypothetical profiles for five fictional students. They then projected how expensive each flagship would be for each student.

The tuition price tags at all 50 universities examined were easily affordable for students from households earning more than $167,000 per year. However, at only six of those flagships — the Universities of Arizona, Michigan at Ann Arbor, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin at Madison — did lower-income students have access to enough scholarships and grants to cover attendance costs.

Each of those six flagships offers grants specific to low-income students, such as Michigan’s GoBlue Guarantee, which covers 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for in-state residents. Even still, the percentage of Pell Grant-eligible students enrolled at some of the most affordable flagship universities remains substantially lower than the national average of 30 percent attending “very selective” public and private nonprofit four-year colleges and universities, according to the report.

A handful of flagships do enroll above-average percentages of Pell Grant recipients, such as those in Idaho, Maine, and Montana. But, the report found that available need-based grants and scholarships at those universities are insufficient to close the affordability gap for low-income students.

The majority of flagships, which often boast big research dollars, strong alumni networks and an opportunity for social mobility, sit on the other end of the college affordability spectrum, marked by a mix of hefty sticker prices and scant need-based support. The report identified Alabama, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina as some of the priciest, with annual attendance costs hovering around $30,000.

This is all happening against a national backdrop of steadily decreasing state higher-education funding, Voight said.

“When states disinvest in higher education, institutions often turn to increasing tuition in order to make up the difference,” Voight said. In addition to ballooning in-state tuition costs, universities are ramping up recruitment of out-of-state students, which often means more students from more affluent families, who can pay inflated out-of-state tuition bills. Those funding strategies have consequences, Voight said. “As a result of the increased tuition prices students have to pay — that burden falls heaviest on low-income students who have the least amount of resources to draw upon to cover those costs.”

Correction (9/06/2019 5:41 p.m.): The photo caption on this article originally stated that Michigan is one of six universities that offer scholarships specific to low-income students. Many institutions have need-based aid programs, but the Institute for Higher Education Policy says they are not generous enough to fully cover the students’ unmet need.

Kathryn Palmer is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @kathrynbpalmer, or email her at kathryn.palmer@chronicle.com.