White House, colleges promote cost transparency
The White House is partnering with dozens of colleges, including the University of Texas, to provide new students with easier-to-understand information on costs and financial aid.
Although the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed such a form in January, only Congress can make it mandatory. But at a White House round table Tuesday led by Vice President Joe Biden, the leaders of some of the nation's largest universities, representing 1.4 million students, volunteered to provide the data beginning in the 2013-14 school year.
UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who participated in the round-table discussion, applauded efforts to increase transparency of higher education costs. "Providing students and their families with clear and concise information regarding the cost to earn a college degree is a top priority for all our universities," Cigarroa said in a statement. "The UT System already provides students with access to information regarding cost of attendance, financial aid options and net costs after grants and scholarships through a variety of communication mediums."
The UT System, with nine academic and six health campuses, for several years has put such data in its annual Accountability and Performance report, posted online, and earlier this year launched a public "dashboard," a suite of Web-based applications letting students, families and the public explore a variety of data.
About two-thirds of bachelor's degree recipients borrow to attend college, but many colleges send out confusing financial aid offers, sometimes blurring the lines between grants and scholarships, which don't have to be repaid, and loans, which do. Without uniform information, students and their parents often find it difficult to compare offers.
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