WGU’s Student Debt Reduction

Debt Reduction Op-Ed

Last year, the national student loan debt reached $1.5 trillion, with one in eight Americans carrying some piece of that amount. In Tennessee, student loan debt totals more than $29.6 billion, with an average of $36,200 in debt per borrower. Exceeding even credit card debt, the ballooning national student debt has reached a crisis point, and we need to begin discussing new ways to provide prospective students of all kinds with educational opportunities – without drowning them in debt.

There are numerous reactive tips financial advisers provide to recent graduates regarding their loans, but what if universities could do some of the work and tackle this crisis on the front end? That’s Western Governors University’s plan – and it works.

Responsible Borrowing Initiative (RBI)

How can WGU reduce the overall cost of college for working adults? In part, we can be up-front about what borrowing means and how it may impact students down the road. At WGU, we implemented what we call our Responsible Borrowing Initiative (RBI) to help students borrow only what they need.

Through the RBI, all students who apply for financial aid receive a personalized financial plan that will recommend that students borrow only what they need to pay tuition and fees rather than the total amount for which they are eligible. The program has reduced the amount borrowed by 41%, meaning WGU grads on average leave with a lot less debt than their peers across the country.

The program has been recognized by higher-education trade organizations and even some state governments. Based on many of WGU’s best practices, in 2019 Tennessee enacted its Responsible Borrowing Act, requiring colleges and universities in the Tennessee state system to provide students with a detailed financial plan every single year.

Scholarships

By helping students be aware of what they might owe, we can help cut down on long-term costs. But that’s not to say WGU is ignoring the short-term costs of a college education either.

With over $20 million awarded in scholarships last year, WGU helps make tuition even more affordable. And through the generosity of our partners and corporate sponsors, we can offer countless scholarships assisting students in all of WGU’s program areas. Often, we have partnerships with local hospitals, trade organizations, and school districts, which offer prospective students from those pipelines a pathway to more scholarship opportunities and fee reductions.Over the years, WGU has tried to be flexible with scholarship money, addressing particular needs of students at the time. Within the last year, we’ve introduced a scholarship to help