Efforts by a conservative political group called "Free Harvard, Fair Harvard" to be elected into the Board of Overseers of Harvard University have fallen through, delivering a blow to aspirations to make the Massachusetts educational institution tuition-free.

Running on the platform of free college education and controversially questioning Harvard's consideration of race in ensuring admissions diversity, Ron Unz and his group was unsuccessful in clinching one of the five slots in the mailed-ballot election, the Boston Globe reported.

Instead, alumni have chosen Kent Walker, an executive at Google; Ketanji Brown Jackson, a District Court judge in Washington, D.C.; Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, a professor in Northwestern University, Helena Buonanno Foulkes, president of CVS/pharmacy; and Alejandro Ramirez Magaña, CEO of Cinepolis in Mexico City. They will serve until 2022 and will help set the long-term goals of Harvard.

Unz has confessed that he is not happy with the results but believes that his campaign sparked a conversation about how well-endowed education institutions use their money, Massachusetts Live reported.

Earlier this year, the lead-up to the election became controversial after it was revealed that Unz funded what his critics view as "white supremacist" researchers and writers. One such writer works for a website that says "diversity per se is not strength, but a vulnerability."

The rising cost of college education has become an increasingly pressing concern in the past few years. In Harvard alone, the tuition fee for the academic year 2015-2016 is $45,278. Add room, school and board fees to that and you'll have to come up with more than $60,000 to be able to study for a full year in the prestigious university.

Though 65 percent of the school's student population is enjoying financial assistance to finish school in Harvard, schools outside the Ivy League system does not enjoy as much support which translates to rising fees.

Watch an interview of Ron Unz talking about the cost of college on the video below:

Read more
Tags Harvard university