MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- There’s good news and bad news for Tennessee students in the just released Trends in College Pricing Report.
Theannual reportwas released Friday by the College Board.
Students attending a 4 year public university or college in Tennessee paid an average of just over $8000 for school last year. That’s well below the national average. Tennessee students also received - on average - more than $1400 dollars in direct education grant aid from the state, the third highest figure in the nation.
On the down side, tuition at Tennessee’s public schools increased 5 percent last year, well above the 2.9 percent average increase seen nationwide.
Jennifer Ma is one of the report’s co-authors. She says many states managed to avoid raising tuition at all.
“Some states are seeing an improvement in terms of funding, and also I think some states are also responding to pressure from the public and government as well.”
Ma says the State of Tennessee’s annual contribution to public higher education is unusually high, more than twice the national average.