What Is Tuition Discounting?

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Introduction
Tuition discounting is the process through which education institutions compensates its stipulated tuition fee with institutional funding help for enrolling students (AGB, n.d). The outcome is the discount rates, the ratio of the sum of institutional grant aid compared to gross tuition incomes at an institution (AGB, n.d). In majority public and private not-for-profit colleges and universities, even the students who pay their full tuition are supported financially.
Some institutions depend heavily on discounting such that when they raise their tuition, they do not make profits. Tuition discounting was meant to allow the system to balance students' abilities to finance their tuition with a willingness to pay while still achieving …show more content…

University and college officials try to use their discounts well. With the hope to raise net tuition revenue, they use their finances where it will attract most students especially students who are most likely to propel the mission and objectives of the institution (Davis, 2003). A good result of enrollment management and tuition discounting is that some colleges and universities have enhanced their registration of students', and thus their financial positions are better. However, tuition discounting works for some colleges only (Davis, 2003). Although tuition discounting is sometimes successful in assisting some colleges and universities shape the enrollment of students, it does not always generate the needed enrollment effects (Davis, 2003). It also does not always increase institutional income (Davis, 2003). Besides, the practice by individual colleges, when merged across all institutions has brought about disturbing outcomes for lower-income students (Davis, …show more content…

It was in comparison to the rates for other students at both private and public institutions (Davis, 2003). In private institutions, the dollar increases were more for affluent students than for lower-income students. These disparities occurred primarily because grants were directed to students from well- off families (Davis, 2003). Hence, it seems that using funds to discount tuition for wealthier students threatens lower-income students' financial access to university and college (Davis, 2003). The practice makes tuition fees more expensive for lower-income students which beats the purpose of financial grants in the first place. It also works more to limit their choices of which university or college to attend. A reason that average grant assistance to middle and upper-income students may have grown is that their financial needs are

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