Administration officials of Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. announced they will be making some changes to the college's undergraduate tuition pricing model.
The school, which has an enrollent of 7,500 students, said it will reduce its tuition by between 20 and 25 percent next fall to keep the interests of prospective students stressed about the rising cost of education.
"Our high list price intimidates many students and parents, and we need to change that to continue to serve an economically diverse student body," Lesley University President Dr. Joseph B. Moore said in a statement.
The university announced in early October that the price of one year of tuition to attend the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the College of Art and Design, their two undergraduate schools, will be $24,000 starting in fall of 2014, down from current tuition rates of $32,000 and $30,600, respectively.
However, most students currently attending the university will not see a major drop in educational costs because the school also plans to reduce the financial aid it provides students.
"It's important to note that the annual cost of education for most current Lesley students will remain unchanged," Moore said in a statement. "We will reduce tuition price and institutional aid so that the list price is more closely aligned with the real cost. All students will continue to receive the full benefits of our institutional aid promise to them."
Lesley University Board Chair Deborah Raizes said administrators believe increasing tuition rates and discounts are leaving many people behind.
"We don't believe the current model of high tuition and high aid can continue to work for our university and for the families we serve," she said in a statement. "As a nonprofit institution with an obligation to serve the public good, we knew we had to make a change."
According to the Business Journal, this is a reaction to the strains of the new "financial calculus" affecting the U.S. higher-education industry.
Last June, the liberal arts college said their net tuition revenue slipped 2 percent to $77.98 million, a one-year decline of roughly $1.7 million.
Financial filings indicate Lesley's year-over-year slide was partly due to a 1 percent reduction in tuition and fee collections and largely the result of a 7 percent increase in university-sponsored student aid, the Business Journal reports.
Moore adds that this initiative is not a "comprehensive solution" to the affordability barriers many American families face, but is a "modest change" that may help more families consider Lesley University as an educational option.
