Fewer WSU students are taking out loans and graduating with loan debt and average debts are falling since the state began its campaign to enhance college affordability in 2015.
The Great Recession drove the Legislature to increase tuition at WSU by 75 percent over four years in order to partially mitigate a near halving of state appropriation to the university and other public higher education institutions in Washington. In 2015 the Legislature fully funded a 15 percent tuition reduction over two years, which it backfilled with new appropriation, and established a new tuition policy greatly restricting annual growth to the 14-year rolling average of median wage growth. Since then, no annual increase at WSU has exceeded 2.6 percent. The WSU Board of Regents three times has approved tuition increases below the authorized cap.
In 2019 the Legislature established the Washington College Grant to provide assistance to low-income students on a graduated scale that doesn’t need to be paid back. It has expanded eligibility twice, most recently in 2023. The full impact of these expansions won’t be realized until this year’s freshman class graduates in May, 2027.
All of this is on top of pre-existing institutional funds, federal grants and generous distributions off of WSU’s endowment dedicated by donors to scholarships and other forms of financial aid.
The collective impact of these state-driven changes have been notable.
- The percentage of resident undergraduates graduating with zero debt has jumped from 35.6 percent in 2015 to 51 percent in 2023.
- For those resident graduates who graduate with debt, average debts have fallen from $25,231 to $23,286 in real dollars not adjusted for inflation.
- The number of resident undergrads taking out loans within an academic year also has been falling. In 2015, 53.2 percent of undergraduates took out loans. In 2023 that had fallen to about 34.5 percent.
Additionally, 34 percent of resident undergraduates pay no tuition at WSU and just 35 percent pay full tuition as affordability metrics continue to improve across the board.