A new report on Connecticut”™s four-year colleges has called into question high costs and low rates of student completions across the state, including at two schools in Fairfield County.
According to “Less for More: Low Rates of Completion and High Costs at Connecticut”™s Four-Year Colleges” published by the nonprofit Education Reform Now Connecticut, nearly half of Connecticut”™s 22 four-year colleges charged “an exceptionally high net price to students from the lowest income families.” In addition, 12 of the colleges “charged more than double the net price that a national peer institution charged to comparable low-income students,” the report said.
The publication, which culled 2016 and 2017 data, found the University of Bridgeport and Danbury”™s Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) along with New London”™s Mitchell College as consistently graduating less than 50% of their first-time, full-time student populations within six years of initial enrollment.
Those three schools, along with Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, were identified as “double offenders” for low levels of student success and higher net prices than comparable colleges.
The report observed that Connecticut”™s four-year colleges carried average net prices for low-income students that were significantly higher than most of their peer institutions serving similar students. As an example, it cited WCSU”™s average net for low-income students as being more than $14,000 per year, while Massachusetts”™ Westfield State University charged $2,707 less per year and boasted a higher graduation rate.
However, the study found positive data elsewhere in Fairfield County: Fairfield University and UConn-Stamford were named among those schools that “compare to their peers very reasonably in their completion rates for underrepresented minorities,” while Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University were shown to have graduated more than 60% of underrepresented minority populations within six years of enrollment.
“The takeaway from this study is that too many Connecticut students are simply not set up for success. Connecticut can and should do better by its students,” said Amy Dowell, state director of Education Reform Now Connecticut.
“This data shows that our institutions of higher education are sometimes leaving our most vulnerable students worse off than before they enrolled,” she said. “When we ask young people to take on debt without even earning the credentials that will allow for paying it off ”“ that also has a compounding effect on our state economy.”
