UMD to Offer Free Tuition to Students Whose Families Qualify Financially

The University of Minnesota's Board of Regents unanimously approved a plan Friday that would provide students who come from families that qualify financially a tuition-free education at all five of their campuses.

According to StarTribune.com, the plan will allow students whose families earn $50,000 per year or less to attend the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Minnesota Morris, University of Minnesota Rochester or University of Minnesota Crookston without paying a dime in tuition.

StarTribune.com notes that "while students whose families make $50,000 per year or less already have most of their tuition covered by a mix of need-based scholarships and state and federal grants. The new program, which U leaders hope to have in place by this fall, will cover any leftover tuition costs for those students. It will not pay for additional fees or room and board expenses." It is estimated that this new program could benefit as many as many as 2,800 students each year.

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It was an eventful Friday for the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents, who also approved many other long-term priorities which they intend to implement over the next five years:

Other five-year priorities approved Friday include reducing average undergraduate student debt to less than $25,000 — U graduates currently average about $27,000 in debt; increasing institutional scholarship aid by 10%; increasing the number of campus job opportunities for students and developing a systemwide student mental health initiative.

Creating a five-year plan to achieve a healthy amount of goals that will help provide equal education opportunities for all students is a commendable task to undertake and it's nice to see unanimous support for such an agenda.