Ā鶹ֱ²„ has announced the āAnchored Tuition Pledge,ā committing to hold tuition at the starting rate for each incoming class beginning with the fall 2022 semester ā and to keep it at the present level for all current students.
āāAnchored Tuitionā means that the tuition rate you start with is the tuition rate you end with,ā said Ā鶹ֱ²„ President Matthew A. Scogin. āThis will give students and their families financial peace of mind and confidence in setting their personal budgets for the years ahead.ā
āIt is yet another ānew thingā we are doing at Hope to begin to correct the broken business model of higher education,ā he said. āFor decades, the rate of college tuition has risen at double the rate of inflation. With āAnchored Tuition,ā we are saying, āNo more.āā
Through the āAnchored Tuition Pledge,ā the present annual, full-time tuition rate of $36,300 that has been in place since the fall of 2020 will remain constant for all current students for the duration of their time at the college. For freshmen and transfer students who enroll beginning next fall, full-time tuition will be $37,990 and will stay there through the duration of their time at Hope.
The āAnchored Tuition Pledgeā is a component of the collegeās āHope Forwardā initiative, announced in July, to one day fund a Hope education for all students through gifts rather than tuition. In a āHope Forwardā model, studentsā education would be fully funded up front and students would then commit to give to Hope after graduation. Achieving that goal is a long-term ambition estimated to require increasing the collegeās endowment by about $1.1 billion.
In the meantime, an anonymous gift is enabling Hope to pilot the āHope Forwardā paradigm for two groups of about 20 students enrolling this past fall and this coming fall. In addition, Hope held the 2021-22 tuition rate at the 2020-21 level for all students.
āāAnchored Tuitionā is a next step in āHope Forward,āā Scogin said. āEven as we are bringing in cohorts of students to pilot our āHope Forwardā 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 āHope Forwardā continues, we hope we can eventually eliminate tuition increases that affect even the incoming class and ultimately begin to lower it until every studentās tuition is fully funded.ā
The āAnchored Tuition Pledgeā and āHope Forwardā models donāt apply to room, board and annual fees, whose cost could vary with inflation. For students in 2022-23, those costs will total $11,470.
The new programās use of the word āanchoredā connects more deeply to the college than simply the common definition of an anchor holding something steady. The anchor is the symbol of Hope, inspired by founder Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte, who described the Pioneer School from which the college grew as his āanchor of Hope for this people in the future.ā The symbolism follows the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:19, āWe have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul...ā
āReverend Van Raalte and Hollandās pioneers established the Pioneer School and ultimately Ā鶹ֱ²„ because they recognized the importance of education,ā Scogin said. āThey were initially seeking to make a transformational Christian education accessible to the young people of the community, an ambition that quickly grew to encompass the nation and the world. āAnchored Tuitionā and āHope Forwardā are ways that we are carrying that vision ahead for new generations.ā
Learn more about the Anchored Tuition Pledge