FAYETTEVILLE -- When parents or potential applicants to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville visit the White House's online College Scorecard, the first bit of data highlighted is the institution's average net price of $12,057 per year.
The number goes unmentioned on UA's website and likely won't appear on the agenda for the UA System board of trustees meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Batesville, even though tuition and fee rates will be set for the new academic year.
For the 2014-2015 academic year, tuition and fees totaled $8,210 for Arkansas residents enrolled in a typical schedule, according to UA's website.
The White House emphasis on net price comes at a time when rising student debt has made how to pay for college a national concern.
For all the attention paid by trustees, parents and students to college affordability, information breaking down costs can be little understood.
But the average net price -- essentially the published total cost of living and going to school minus certain types of aid -- offers at least another perspective into the affordability of a college for students and their families. Swings in student financial aid, living expenses, and textbook prices influence an institution's average net price.
And viewed over time, UA's average net price is increasing by a greater amount than its tuition and fees.
The average net price increased at UA by $2,070 from 2010-11 to 2012-13, the most recent year such data are available from the National Center for Education Statistics. The average net price reached $12,057 in the 2012-13 academic year and is calculated for first-time, full-time undergraduates receiving federal, state or local, or institutional grants.
In contrast, tuition and fees increased at UA by $786 over the same time period, according to the center, with tuition and fees totaling $7,554 for the 2012-13 year. Both the average net price and tuition data are for in-state rates only.
Ben Hyneman, chairman of the UA System board of trustees, downplayed the importance of average net price.
"We understand the goal to create a single metric that would allow comparison among institutions. However, the net price calculator -- because of the nature of the calculation -- does not provide an unbiased measure of the true cost of attendance for any one individual," Hyneman said in a written statement.
He went on to note that "trustees are committed to offering the highest quality undergraduate education at the greatest value." The trustees spend "a great deal of time considering cost of attendance" while working to "implement efficient business models," Hyneman said in the statement.
UA includes on its website an interactive net-price calculator, like other colleges and universities. The interactive calculator allows prospective students to enter information about family income and academic achievement to receive an estimate on aid eligibility.
Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics for the nonprofit advocacy organization The Education Trust, said that while average net price is "not perfect," it gives insight into the costs of attending college.
"I think paying attention to the net price in terms of what you actually pay is way more important than paying attention to tuition and fees," Nichols said.
The Education Trust is an organization that seeks to promote educational opportunities for low-income and minority-group students.
The White House portal, introduced in 2013, notes that UA's average net price is considered "low." And while UA's average net price is rising, a comparison group including schools such as the University of Missouri, the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M University had its average net price rise by $1,868 from 2010-11 to 2012-13, an amount comparable to UA's $2,070 increase.
Rising costs have hit students like Carmen Perry.
"Even since I've started at the University of Arkansas, the prices of books or things that you would need have dramatically increased," said Perry, who graduated in May with plans for a career in health care with a double major in nutrition and public health.
She'll also have to deal with roughly $40,000 in student debt, she said. Perry described how she shared books with her brother, Jerry, and other friends to save money, while also finding better options than living on campus.
UA calculates "room and board and other expenses" in determining its average net price, and this expense increased by $913 from 2010-11 to 2012-13 -- the single biggest factor by dollar amount in its increasing average net price.
Using a weighted average that takes into account that the large majority of freshmen live on campus, UA reported $11,275 in such expenses for the 2012-13 school year.
Books and supplies, according to data on average net price, increased by $116 from 2010-11 to 2012-13, totaling $1,278 for the 2012-13 school year.
Along with costs, changes in student aid also affect what UA students pay to attend class.
Data used to calculate average net price for UA show shrinking average grant and scholarship amounts for UA freshmen, with the average award decreasing by $255 from 2010-11 to 2012-13. On average, first-time, full-time UA students received $8,050 in total grants or scholarships from institutional, state or local, and federal sources in 2012-13, according to data.
Other data going back several more years show institutional awards from UA to first-time, full-time students have decreased, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
However, "we don't see that as having any meaning at all," said Suzanne McCray, UA's vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions. McCray said more freshmen are receiving awards where in the past they did not, thus contributing to the lower average award.
Citing tremendous growth in enrollment, McCray described the trend for institutional scholarships as "complicated."
From 2009-10 to 2012-13, the most recent years for which data are available, the average grant from UA has been $4,900-$5,000 for freshmen receiving some sort of institutional grant. The number of first-time, full-time undergraduates receiving any such grant has increased each year since 2008-09, with 1,572 students receiving an institutional grant or scholarship in 2012-13.
In earlier years, the average institutional grant was substantially higher, peaking at $7,551 for the 2005-06 school year, when 1,360 students received any such grant.
Calculations by the Democrat-Gazette show that UA gave out about $7.8 million in grants to freshmen in the 2012-13 school year, up from about $7.2 million the previous year. Going back several years, UA at times gave out more (about $10.3 million in 2005-06) or less (about $5.6 million in 2009-10) to freshmen.
McCray said the university's budget for scholarship awards includes certain expectations that some students will leave UA and not use up four years of an award, thus freeing money to offer to new students, for example.
"If we have retained a lot more students, then we will make fewer offers in the freshman year," McCray explained.
She also noted the influence of changing demographics for UA freshmen on scholarship trends.
In 2005-06, a total of 1,360 UA freshmen received institutional grants -- 51 percent of the total freshman class. Seven years later, 35 percent of freshmen received institutional grants in the 2012-13 academic year, the most recent year for which scholarship data were available.
"We have more people who are ready to come here and find this the No. 1 choice even though they're going to have to pay a full amount," McCray said. Dramatic growth in the size of UA's freshman class has involved many more out-of-state students than in the past.
Financial statements from UA show the university recorded about $24.3 million in spending on scholarships and fellowships in its 2013-14 fiscal year, the most recent year for which such data were available. This made up about 3 percent of the university's operating expenses for the year.
Recent scholarship fundraising efforts have focused on boosting dollars for need-based scholarships, McCray said, while the university evaluates scholarship programs in part on their effectiveness in recruiting high-achieving students. Some scholarship awards for top students have increased. Honors College fellowships will increase this fall to $17,500 per year from $12,500 per year.
But if awards on average may have decreased, "it's not like we're taking away from Peter to pay Paul," McCray said. As an example of UA's increasing outreach, she cited the recent creation of a new scholarship, the one-time Freshman Academic Scholarship, which provides up to $1,000 for incoming students.
UA began offering that scholarship after a reduction in the state-funded Academic Challenge Scholarship, commonly referred to as the lottery scholarship.
Data on scholarships show that students at UA now are much more likely to receive state or local governmental awards, with the growth stemming from the initial expansion of the Academic Challenge Scholarship that began in 2010-11.
This funding, however, has proved to be less than stable for each class of new freshmen. Lottery scholarships for freshmen were cut by state officials to $2,000 from $4,500 beginning with the 2013-14 school year, with another reduction in freshman awards planned for the 2016-17 academic year.
UA graduate Perry said she plans to pursue a career in health care, but added that her choices will be influenced somewhat by her debt. The average student debt was $25,838 for graduates in 2013, according to the Project on Student Debt at the Institute for College Access and Success; when it comes to the amount students typically borrow, UA is not rated "low" but "medium" by the White House's College Scorecard.
"I don't think any student envisions that they'll have to pay back an extreme amount of money just to go to school," Perry said.
A Section on 05/17/2015