Small colleges around Toledo area brainstorm ideas to increase enrollment

Private, smaller universities and colleges in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan are turning to innovative programming and tuition cuts to maintain viability in an ever-changing academic climate.

Market changes and economic pressures are causing some colleges nationwide to deeply discount their true tuition rates. Among an estimated 1,700 private, nonprofit colleges, smaller ones are overstretched.

According to the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers, the tuition discount rate — meaning how much in tuition and fee revenue is returned to students — among private colleges nationally is nearly 50 percent.

Siena Heights University in Adrian has managed to increase enrollment, in part through attempts to stabilize tuition rates.

Read more: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2019/07/27/small-private-universities-rise-nationwide-fight-viability-enrollment-lourdes-siena-heights/stories/20190725158