HD28 - Study on the Affordability of Virginia's Public and Private Institutions


Executive Summary:
[The full executive summary can be read in the report.}

The 2005 Acts of the Assembly, Item 165 1.3., charged the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) with conducting a higher education affordability study. Specifically, the language of the Act requires the following:

The purpose of the study shall be to address the extent to which cost is a barrier to access for students wishing to attend a public or private, nonprofit college or university in the Commonwealth.
In addressing this issue, the study shall include, but is not limited to, identifying:

(i) the economic diversity of students attending Virginia's public and private institutions of higher education;

(ii) the extent to which students and families rely on grant aid, loans, savings, and supplemental employment to cover the cost of attendance;

(iii) the extent to which state-funded need-based student financial aid mitigates any cost barrier for students in attending public colleges and universities or reduces reliance on loans, savings, and supplement employment;

(iv) the extent to which state funding for the tuition assistance grant enables students to attend private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the Commonwealth; and

(v) the comparative affordability and dependence on grants, loans, savings, and supplemental employment between Virginia's system of public and private institutions and that of similar states.