High university tuition offset by loan and support programs

Chronicle of Higher Education : A report issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that enrollment rates in higher educational institutions are tied more to the availability of tuition support programs than to the level of the tuition itself. The findings are based on data from the 34 OECD member nations and several nonmember nations. The most significant finding is that regardless of average tuition levels, nations with strong tuition support and student loan programs have the highest enrollment rates. Nations that do not have strong support programs, such as France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, have significantly lower enrollment rates despite having low average tuition. Other statistics show that the US is only 13th in the percentage of students earning bachelor’s degrees. Also in the US, social mobility is a significant factor in college attendance; of the families in which the parents did not attend college, only 29% of the children do.only 29% of students who go to college have parents who didn’t.