Variable Pricing for a Learner-Centered Strategy

Many thanks to ABACC for re-publishing a recent Campus blog post in their newsletter. It made headline news. The Association of Business Administrators for Christian Colleges found this piece to be particularly relevant for their audience.

"Survival for the residential, four-year, private Christian college model will almost certainly require new pricing.

Any learner-centered strategy for higher education institutions should include an analysis of the potential for variable pricing. At most US Colleges and Universities, there are two variations for pricing—in-state and out-of-state—yet the amount students are actually paying for the same educational experiences varies dramatically based on the aid package, scholarships, and discounts they receive. Variable pricing already exists. It just exists behind the curtain of financial aid packaging.

Every student in a college dorm is probably paying a slightly different amount to attend the same school, yet it would be rare for a student who is “shopping” for a school to have advanced knowledge of what the actual cost for them might be. They exclude schools from their list of potentials as “too expensive” when in fact they may not be, and they include schools where they think they may receive a decent financial aid package only to find out that they didn’t." See the rest of the article.