Yale To Increase Student Financial Aid To Be In Line With Harvard
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HARTFORD, Conn. — Yale University is joining other elite colleges across the country in increasing student financial aid after complaints from federal lawmakers about years of rising tuition rates. Yale officials announced yesterday that the Ivy League school in New Haven will spend more money from its $22.5 billion endowment in the 2008-2009 academic year on financial aid and scientific research. The university intends to increase the annual endowment payout for such programs by 37% to $1.15 billion, the president of Yale, Richard Levin, said.
Yale is also considering using endowment money to build two new residential colleges and increase its undergraduate enrollment from 5,300 to about 6,000. Exactly how much Yale will increase student aid will be announced later this month, but Mr. Levin said it will be “substantial” and in line with the $20 million increase announced by Harvard last month.
Yale currently spends $60 million a year on financial aid for students, with the average annual grant totaling $28,000. Tuition, room and board for one year at Yale costs $45,000, and about 43% of undergraduates get financial aid, a university spokesman, Tom Conroy, said. Parents earning a total of $45,000 or less a year do not have to pay anything for their child’s education.
“Exceptionally strong investment returns in recent years have led to a lower than anticipated payout rate from the endowment under our current policy,” Mr. Levin said in a statement.
“The prudent policy revision we are making will increase spending from the endowment to benefit students and researchers today while continuing to ensure that the endowment’s capacity to support future generations of students is undiminished,” he said. Mr. Levin said that while Yale officials have been concerned for several years about the low percentage of the endowment spent on university programs, the changes announced yesterday were partly in response to criticism from federal lawmakers, including Senator Grassley of Iowa. “I think it’s important that our schools be left to make those decisions for themselves,” Mr. Levin said about endowment spending. “But I think Senator Grassley’s done a public service by raising the issue.”
