HOLLAND, Mich. — Hope College announced on Feb. 9, 2022, their commitment to hold tuition at the starting rate for every incoming class starting with the fall 2022 semester.
“‘Anchored Tuition’ means that the tuition rate you start with is the tuition rate you end with,” said Hope College President Matthew A. Scogin. “This will give students and their families financial peace of mind and confidence in setting their personal budgets for the years ahead.”
The pledge means that the full-time tuition rate of $36,000 will remain a constant for all current students for the rest of their college matriculation. Incoming freshmen and transfer students enrolling next fall will have consistent tuition of $37,000 for their time in college.
“It is yet another ‘new thing’ we are doing at Hope to begin to correct the broken business model of higher education,” he said. “For decades, the rate of college tuition has risen at double the rate of inflation. With ‘Anchored Tuition,’ we are saying, ‘No more.’”
The Anchored Tuition Pledge is part of the Hope Forward initiative announced in July. Through the initiative, students would be fully funded upfront with a commitment to give to Hope College upon graduation.
If the goal is achieved the college would increase its endowment by $1.1 billion.
Until such time the goal is completed an anonymous gift has enabled Hope to pilot the “Hope Forward” paradigm for two groups of roughly 20 students each in addition to the 2021 to 2022 tuition rate being held at the 2020 to 2022 tuition rate for all students.
“‘Anchored Tuition’ is a next step in ‘Hope Forward,’” Scogin said. “Even as we are bringing in cohorts of students to pilot our ‘Hope Forward’ model and plan to continue to do so, we are committed to making a Hope education more affordable and accessible to all students. As fundraising for ‘Hope Forward’ continues, we hope we can eventually eliminate tuition increases that affect even the incoming class and ultimately begin to lower it until every student’s tuition is fully funded.”
The “Anchored Tuition Pledge” and “Hope Forward” models don’t apply to room, board, and annual fees, whose cost could vary with inflation. For students in 2022-23, those costs will total $11,470.
Neither the pledge nor the initiative applies to room, board, or annual fees all of which vary with inflation. Students from 2022 to 2023 can expect costs to be a total of $11, 470.
