In response to a national effort to raise the number of college graduates, higher education institutions across the country have realized that their first step toward reaching this goal is to get more students in the door. With tuition rates constantly on the rise though, this is not an easy task, even for community college officials. To meet President Obama’s education goal, community colleges will need to produce 5 million additional graduates by the year 2020. But Miami Dade College recently announced its own plan for producing more college graduates: free tuition.
Tuition has risen in every higher education sector, from campus-based non-profit private and public universities to for-profit online universities and trade schools. Additional government and institutional aid has accompanied the tuition increase, but for some it’s still not enough.