Writer: Alejandro Sanchez
2 min read February 2022— Discussing the future of higher education, sectoral leaders agree that affordability and accessibility remain among the top priorities in Central Florida. As the job market continues to experience drastic changes, affordability is an essential component for those individuals with a desire to acquire new skills and take part in the transformation. Invest: spoke with local leaders in higher education about the actions taken by their institutions to balance academic excellence with affordability.
Grant Cornwell, President, Rollins College
At Rollins, we want to make sure that we use financial aid to enable every student who’s qualified and wants to study at Rollins to be able to study at Rollins. In our CLA program, 95% of our students receive financial aid, and the average cost of attendance is half the full published price. We extend a tremendous amount of financial aid. We also know that to be relevant and have an excellent educational institution, we need to be a diverse institution. The real learning that takes place needs voices from all kinds of backgrounds, experiences and identities.
Deidré Keller, Dean, FAMU College of Law
Affordability is central to the mission of FAMU College of Law. Our history is committed to supporting underserved populations and the vast majority of our students are first-generation law students, and many are first-generation college students. Affordability can be a barrier to access, which is why we are the least expensive law school in Florida. We are committed to continuing that affordability and making sure students get an exceptional education and are not over-burdened by debt.
Georgia Lorenz, President, Seminole State College of Florida
It’s about $104 per credit hour if you look at tuition and fees for most Florida state colleges, so affordability starts there. At Seminole State every student receives a license to Office 365 that they can use on up to five different devices at no cost. Our foundation awards more than $1 million in scholarships every year and, of course, students have access to financial aid. We are the only college in Florida that is part of the Federal Work Study Experiment. Through this program students can work in private industry in their career field of interest and federal funds subsidize the student’s salary. Depending on the size of the company, anywhere between 50% and 75% of the student’s salary is paid for through the program.
Christopher Roellke, President, Stetson University
We distribute $98 million on average in financial aid each year to make this powerful form of education both affordable and accessible for the dramatically changing demographics in our region, in the United States and around the world. Our focus is to make this platform of education accessible, affordable and achievable for the wide range of students coming to us. We are very generous about financial aid.
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