Nearly nine in 10 University of Arizona students received some type of financial aid, including loans, to get through school, a new report says.
The 2015-2016 financial aid report from the Arizona Board of Regents details how many students in the state’s three public universities received help and the type of help they got, which includes federal or state aid, institutional gift and private scholarships or loans.
Statewide, more than 150,000 students received aid, which is about 92 percent of the student body in the public university system, Mark Denke, associate vice president of academic and student affairs for the regents, in a briefing last month.
That includes UA’s approximately 38,000 students, who received more than $665 million in total for the 2015-2016 school year. However, many of UA’s students are still graduating with debt, as the largest source of aid was loans.
The average debt for a resident student graduating with an undergraduate degree who took out loans was $21,781. For resident graduate students, it was $67,397.
But UA’s financial aid director Rebekah Salcedo says debt levels have not risen as dramatically considering the university faced some of its biggest tuition increases in the past decade. “We’ve been able to sustain relatively low debt levels for our students,” she said.
For example, over the last six years, student debt increased by less than $4,000, she said. The university and its financial aid office encourages students to borrow responsibly and provide lots of information about multiple sources of financial aid.
Other noteworthy UA findings from the report include:
- Average resident undergraduate students paid $4,678 in tuition after aid. The tuition was about $11,400 for resident students;
- Loans were the largest portion of financial aid at $278 million, or about 41 percent;
- More than 23,000 students took out loans for their education;
- The UA gave out nearly $183 million in institutional aid; and
- The state barely gave any.
So many students see the tuition price tag and find it daunting, which can prevent them from pursuing higher education, said Kasey Urquidez, UA’s vice president for enrollment management and student affairs advancement. But financial aid can open doors.
“There’s no stigma around it,” she said. “We can support them through the process. There’s an opportunity.”
