Nalia Medina, Assistant Director of Government Relations
The authors of the “Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid” report, on Wednesday, presented NASFAA 2025 National Conference attendees with key insights into emerging trends in higher education.
The session provided an overview of the report, which is released by the College Board, and focused on three major areas: enrollment patterns, revenue sources, and prices, aid, and debt.
The report showed that college enrollment sharply declined in 2020 and that the trend continued in 2021. During this time frame, a specific demographic that experienced enrollment declines were international students who were impacted by travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the report found that those trends have shifted and overall enrollment rebounded in 2023, with the number of high school graduates projected to peak in 2025.
Presenters highlighted how 2024-25 was another year of historically low one-year percent increases in published tuition and fees in the public sectors. Additionally, the report showed that tuition declined across three sectors from 2019-20 to 2024-25, after adjusting for inflation. The panel suggested that the tuition decline could have stemmed from many schools and states freezing tuition during the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to high inflation rates.
Attendees also learned that total grant aid accounted for 62% of total financial aid in 2023-24, and grew in that year to $160.2 billion after three years of decline. Institutional grant aid for undergraduate students has increased for all sectors, especially in the public four-year sector.
Publication Date: 6/26/2025
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