Dive Brief:

• The University of Illinois is considering raising the amount of financial aid funneled to in-state students to keep them from attending out-of-state schools.
• Spending in the university’s proposed 2014-2015 budget would increase 1.6%, to $4.52 billion. Tuition would increase 1.7% for new students.
• According to school officials, the main reason that in-state residents who are accepted to the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus choose not to attend is tuition cost.

Dive Insight:

Urbana-Champaign enrolls about 1,000 fewer freshman who are state residents than it did 10 years ago, according to the Chicago Tribune. Also, last fall only 45% of state residents who were offered admission to the university ended up enrolling, compared to 58% in 2006. Some ideas for boosting revenue for in-state-student financial aid: Increase enrollment in the pricier programs, such as the College of Engineering, or increase the number of international students, who may higher tuition rates than in-state students. This fall, the Urbana-Champaign tuition charged to new in-state undergraduate students is $12,036 and up. Student aid in the proposed budget is set at $84 million, up from $21.7 million 10 years ago. Combined state and federal aid is expected to total $347 million for the 2014-2015 school year for the university’s students.