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Average National Undergraduate Loan Debt Continues To Rise

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Undergraduates who graduated with student loan debt from four-year colleges in 2014 owed an average of $28,950, according to a recently released report by The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).[1][2] 69 percent of graduates have loan debt, the same figure as last year and slightly higher than it was in 2004 (65 percent). The average amount of debt per borrower is up 56 percent from 2004 – more than double the inflation rate over the same period – but only up 2 percent from 2013.

A number of factors have contributed to the rising student debt load over the past decade. States have decreased their investment in public higher education over the last ten years, causing students at public institutions to bear a higher percentage of the funding burden. Since 2004, the share of public higher education funding provided by states has dropped (from 62 percent to 51 percent) and the share paid by students and their families (in the form of tuition) has increased (from 32 percent to 43 percent).

In addition, the growth of Pell Grants has not kept up with rising costs. The TICAS report shows that between 2004 and 2012—the last year in which data is available—recipients of Pell Grants at public four-year colleges saw average cost of attendance rise by $7,400 and grant aid rise by just $2,900. At private, non-profit colleges the gap is even wider; costs rose by $14,400 and grants increased by $8,700.

Washington state is performing well with regard to student loans: only 58 percent of Washington bachelor’s degree recipients who graduated in 2014 had loans, and those who did had an average of $24,804, more than $4,000 below the national average. The University of Washington also looks good by these metrics: thanks in large part to the University’s commitment to institutional aid through programs such as Husky Promise, less than half of all UW undergraduates who graduated in 2014 had student debt and the average debt burden was $21,558, well below the state and national averages.

While Washington’s performance relative to its peers is laudable, student debt is still a major issue for many students. The TICAS report offers a series of proposals to mitigate the student debt load, among them doubling the size of Pell Grants, simplifying income-driven repayment plans, and improving student loan servicing to make it easier for students to pay back their loans. It is important that policymakers remain focused on reducing the student debt burden and continue working with institutions to make higher education accessible and affordable for all students during and after graduation.

 

 

 

[1] It’s important to note that borrowing rates and debt levels vary widely by state, college and sector.

[2] Because the federal government does not require colleges to report debt levels for their graduates, data in the TICAS report is based on voluntary reporting by institutions. Hardly any for-profit colleges voluntarily report their graduates’ average debt, so this year’s debt figures are for public and nonprofit colleges only.

National 3-Year Cohort Default Rate Drops For Third Consecutive Year: UW Continues to Excel

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The Department of Education recently released their annual report detailing the 3-year cohort default rate (CDR)—a metric that measures what percentage of postsecondary students default on their loan payments within the first three years of entering repayment—and the data are encouraging: the 3-year CDR for FY 2012 is 11.8 percent, almost two percent lower than the previous year and three percent lower than FY 2010.

While reasons for the drop are uncertain, administration officials have credited the increased enrollment in income-based repayment plans as partially responsible. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has cheered the lower default rate but cautions that there is more work to do. “There’s no real reason why we can’t significantly reduce default rates even further,” he told reporters in a statement reported by Inside Higher Ed. “We’re going to keep working to hold schools accountable.”

The report also breaks down the CDR by school, state, and institution type. Below is a breakdown of the most salient statistics.

National statistics:

  • Public four year institutions saw their 3-year CDR drop to 7.6 percent, down from 8.9 percent last year.
  • Private non-profit four year institutions’ default rate also dropped, to 6.3 percent from 7 percent.
  • Private for-profit four year institutions’ CDR dropped to 14.7 percent, down from 18.6 percent last year.

State statistics:

  • Schools in Washington state have an average 3-year default rate of 10.1 percent, slightly below the national average.
  • The University of Washington performed exceptionally well by this measure: the 3-year CDR for UW dropped to 2.7 percent, almost 5 percent lower than the national average for public four year universities and down from 4.3 percent last year.

As previously stated, the declining CDR average nationwide is a hopeful sign for the future of student loan repayment. Nevertheless, loans remain a massive strain on millions of college students and graduates and more must be done to alleviate the student debt burden. The CDR itself has come under fire as a flawed metric; it only measures those students who default on payments and does not take into account the almost one in three borrowers who make payments but cannot make any progress on paying down their debt or the share of students at a given institution who borrow. Some in the education policy world have called for using loan repayment rates, rather than default rates, as the primary metric for gauging an institution’s ability to prepare its students for repayment.

 

Greetings!

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My name is Andrew Orlebeke and I am the Legislative Analysis Intern for the Office of Planning and Budgeting and a Master in Public Administration student at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. I’ll be updating this blog periodically with posts on all things higher education, from federal and state legislative issues to the release of higher education reports to UW-specific policy initiatives. Feedback is more than welcome and thank you so much for reading!

UW is Most Innovative Public University in the World and “Best Bang for the Buck” Among Western Schools

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Reuters recently ranked the UW as the fourth most innovative university in the world among public and private institutions, surpassed only by Stanford, MIT and Harvard.  When looking at public institutions alone, however, the UW topped the list.

As the Seattle Times noted, “The ranking takes into account academic papers, which indicate basic research performed at a university, and patent filings and successes, which point to an institution’s interest in protecting and commercializing its discoveries.”

In addition to the innovation ranking, Washington Monthly recently ranked UW Seattle as the #1 “Best Bang for the Buck” among Western institutions.  Institutions are scored on “’Net’ (not sticker) price, how well they do graduating the students they admit, and whether those students go on to earn at least enough to pay off their loans.”  For more information about the “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings, please see the companion article.

UW Profiles Receives Industry’s Most Prestigious Honor

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UW Profiles – a set of dynamic, web-based data dashboards – recently received The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) Best Practices Award.  This award is widely considered to be the business intelligence industry’s most prestigious honor.

OPB’s Institutional Data & Analysis team developed UW Profiles, in collaboration with UW IT’s Enterprise Information, Integration & Analytics team, and formally launched the site in fall 2013.  UW Profiles allows users to explore core UW data through 21 visual dashboards that display summary, comparison and trend data.

Campus Technology Innovators also honored UW Profiles, calling it “an intuitive, user-friendly portal that provides a single point of access to data and visualizations for faculty and staff.”

Congratulations to Institutional Analysis and to all those who worked hard to make UW Profiles a reality!

2015 Bill Summary Now Available

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Under the “Briefs” tab of the OPB website, you will find the 2015 Bill Summary, which provides a list of all the bills we tracked during the 2015 legislative session that passed into law.  Links to veto messages are displayed for any bills that were partially vetoed by the Governor.

Of the 538 bills that OPB tracked during the 2015 session, 74 passed into law.

As a reminder, any bill that did not pass into law during the regular session will be reintroduced at the beginning of the supplemental session, next year.

2015-17 Final State Operating and Capital Budgets

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Leadership in both House and Senate passed a compromise operating budget in the form of  Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6052.

All of higher education including financial aid would receive $3.5 billion of Near General Fund (NGF) for the biennium which is 9.2 percent of the overall NGF appropriation of $38.2 billion.

The compromise budget adopts the provisions in Second Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5954, which reduces the operating fee portion of resident undergrad tuition at all public higher education institutions. In 2015-16, resident undergraduate operating fees at all public institutions are to be 5 percent below the 2014-15 rates. In 2016-17, resident undergraduate operating fees at the state universities (the UW and WSU) are to be 15 percent below the 2014-15 rates; at the regional universities, they are to be 20 percent below the 2014-15 rates; and at the community and technical colleges, they are to be held at 5 percent of the 2014-15 rates.

This budget provides $27 million to partially fund compensation increases of 3% in FY16 and 1.8% in FY17. This budget also partially funds collective bargaining agreements with WFSE and SEIU.

Listed below are some of the Key funding’s provided by this budget:

Computer Science – $6 million over the biennium to increase bachelor’s degrees awarded in Computer Science.

WWAMI – $9 million over the biennium to continue operations in Spokane.

Family Practice Medicine Residency Network – $8 million over the biennium to fund additional medical residencies.

O&M Funding – $1.76 million over the biennium to cover maintenance costs for UW Bothell’s Discovery Hall.

The legislature also passed the final capital budget. For more details on the operating and capital budgets, please refer our OPB Brief.

Third House Committee Operating Budget Released Today

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Leadership in the House Appropriations Committee released a third operating budget proposal today in the form of 2P2SHB 1106 and PSHB 2269. This proposal still differs from the Senate budget proposal SB 6050 and varies from the previous House operating budget P2SHB 1106.

All of higher education (including financial aid) would receive nearly $3.348 billion (8.8 percent of near general fund appropriations). Under this proposal, the UW receives a total appropriation of $650.5 million, of which $598.19 million is from Near General Fund account.

Here are some of the key points from the House Budget (2P2SHB 1106) released today :

  • Tuition – This budget assumes tuition rates remain at the levels charged in 2012-2013. Funding is provided to freeze resident undergrad tuition in the first year; however, funding in the second year is provided in HB 2269 (see below).
  • Compensation Increase – This budget proposal is similar to prior proposals, authorizing a 3% and 1.8% for FY16 and 17 respectively; in addition, this budget provides limited funds for the UW’s contracts with SEIU and WFSE.
  • WWAMI – This budget contains a proviso to transfer $4.68 million a year from WSU to the UW to maintain WWAMI and support expansion of this program to 60 students.
  • O&M Funding – $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the Operating and maintenance cost of UW Bothell Discovery Hall which is the same as the House budget, but slightly higher than the Governors funding.

HB 2269 was introduced alongside the primary appropriations bill and would fund the following activities:

  • Medical Residencies – HB 2269 appropriates $8 million over the biennium for medical residencies.
  • Computer Science – This budget provides $8 million over the biennium to increase bachelor’s degrees awarded in computer science.
  • Computer Science Building – This budget appropriates $32 million over the biennium from State building construction account.

We anticipate significant activity this week and will post additional updates to the blog.

Special Session 2015-17 House “Offer” Operating Budget Proposal

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Leadership in the House Committee released a new Operating budget proposal in the form of P2SHB 1106 as a counter offer to the Senate budget released last week. This proposal still differs from the Senate budget and varies slightly from the engrossed House operating budget, ESHB 1106.

All of higher education (including financial aid) would receive nearly $3.49 billion or 9 percent. UW receives a total appropriation of $612.3 million of which $591.39 million is from Near General Fund account.

Here are some of the key points from the House “Offer “Budget proposal:

  • Tuition – This budget freezes tuition to all higher education institutions at the levels charged in 2012-2013. Funding is provided to freeze resident undergrad tuition.
  • Compensation Increase – This budget proposal is similar to prior proposals in authorizing a 3% and 1.8% for FY16 and 17, however this budget would only partially fund the cost of increase. This budget provides limited funds for the UW’s contracts with SEIU and WFSE.
  • WWAMI – This budget contains a proviso to transfer $4.68 million a year from WSU to the UW to maintain WWAMI and also a contains a requirement to support 60 first year medical students and 60 second medical students through WWAMI program in Spokane.
  • O&M Funding – $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the Operating and maintenance cost of UW Bothell Discovery Hall which is the same as the House budget, but slightly higher than the Governors funding.
  • Computer Science – This budget provides $4.25 million over the biennium to increase bachelor’s degrees awarded in computer science.

Please refer to our OPB Brief for more information about the special session House “Offer” budget.

Special Session 2015-17 Senate Chair Operating Budget

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Leadership in the Senate Ways and Means Committee released a new Operating budget proposal on May 28th 2015 in the form of Senate Bill 6050. This proposal makes significant changes to the engrossed Senate operating budget, ESSB 5077 and continues to differ from the engrossed House operating budget, ESHB 1106.

Though the 2015 legislature is scheduled to adjourn today, no compromise operating or capital budget exists. Thus a second special session will be required.

All of higher education (including financial aid) would receive nearly $3.6 billion or 9.2 percent increase from the Governor and House budgets. UW receives a total appropriation of $685.7 million of which $666.36 million is from Near General Fund account.

Here are some of the key points from the Senate “Offer “Ways & Means Budget proposal:

  • Tuition affordability program– This budget reduces the operating fee portion of resident undergrad tuition to 14 percent of the State’s average annual wage in FY16 and FY17. It provides $107 million to offset the reduction in operating fees and an additional funding to backfill the foregone tuition revenue. In spite of the above funding, UW anticipates a shortfall of $3.7 million over the biennium.
  • WWAMI – Senate budget provides $9 million over the biennium for continued operations of the WWAMI medical school program, and the bill requires that the state cost per student per year not exceed $45,000 in Spokane.
  • O&M Funding – $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the Operating and maintenance cost of UW Bothell Discovery Hall which is the same as the House budget, but slightly higher than the Governors funding.
  • Compensation Increase – “Like the House proposal, this budget authorizes 3% and 1.8 % increases for FY16 and FY17, respectively. However, this budget would only partially fund the cost of those increases”.

Please refer to our OPB Brief for more information about the special session senate chair budget. Special session house budget is expected to be released Monday.