Tuition on Phoenix campus will remain at its current cost
through 2024-25
PHOENIX, Dec. 14,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As the price tag to attend
college continues to skyrocket across the country, Grand Canyon University is freezing tuition costs
on its Phoenix campus for the
16th straight year.
The private Christian university's ground campus tuition in
2024-25 will remain at $16,500 before
institutional scholarships are included. Because more than 90% of
GCU's traditional students qualify for institutional scholarships
that totaled $180 million in 2023,
that brings the average tuition cost in 2023-24 to approximately
$9,200, which is comparable to public
universities and well below other private schools. That total does
not include federal aid such as Pell grants and subsidized student
loans or external scholarships that lower students' out-of-pocket
expenses further. In addition to tuition, GCU students pay an
average of roughly $1,150 annually in
fees, excluding book access fees, which is often much less than
other universities.
According to data from the College Board's "Trends in College
Pricing and Student Aid Report," since 2008-09 when GCU began its
tuition freeze, the average cost for in-state tuition and fees at
four-year public colleges has risen 71% to $11,260, while it has risen 65% to $41,540 at four-year private institutions.
"Education is a critical component that can create equality of
opportunity for all socioeconomic classes and promote upward social
mobility in society," said GCU President Brian Mueller. "That should be a significant
objective for all universities. Freezing tuition costs is one way
that we ensure higher education is affordable to all socioeconomic
classes. That increases diversity on college campuses (over 40% of
GCU's enrollment is students of color), makes higher education more
accessible to first-generation college students and helps prevent
students from taking on large amounts of debt."
GCU's housing costs are also well below the national average.
The average cost for room and board at a four-year public college
rose to $12,770 in 2023-24 and to
$14,650 at a four-year private
institution, according to the College Board. GCU's average room and
board cost is just $9,910 even though
nearly all of the modern residence halls have been built in the
past 12 years and roughly 64% of the university's beds are
single-occupancy, apartment-style living.
Since 2009, enrollment on GCU's campus has grown from less than
1,000 traditional students to more than 25,000 while the physical
campus has tripled in size to 300 acres. The university has
invested more than $1.7 billion in
academic infrastructure that includes new degree programs,
classrooms, laboratories, research spaces, residence halls and
technologies throughout its 10 colleges.
"We have been truly blessed with the remarkable transformation
that has occurred on our campus," Mueller said. "What's even more
amazing is that we have been able to accomplish that without
passing those costs on to our students through tuition increases on
the ground campus and without the state tax subsidies that
traditional public universities receive."
About Grand Canyon
University: Grand Canyon
University was founded in 1949 and is Arizona's premier private Christian
university. GCU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and
offers 336 academic programs, emphases and certificates for both
traditional undergraduate students and working professionals. The
University's curriculum emphasizes interaction with classmates,
both in-person and online, and individual attention from
instructors while fusing academic rigor with Christian values to
help students find their purpose and become skilled, caring
professionals. For more information, visit gcu.edu.
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SOURCE Grand Canyon University