“Through tax credits, grants and better loans, we’ve made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down. And it’s our job to make sure that they do.”
– President Barack Obama

During his State of the Union on Feb. 12, President Obama reiterated his desire to address college affordability across the nation and introduced a newly established College Scorecard through the government's College Affordability and Transparency Center. Biola shares this commitment to make college education more affordable, and over the past several years the university has taken a number of significant steps to address the needs of students.  
 

  • In the newly launched University Plan, one of Biola’s seven aspirations over the next decade is to “ensure the affordability of a Biola education.” Strategic measures are being designed and implemented to achieve this aspiration.
  • Over the past several years, Biola has kept its annual tuition increases to their lowest rates in more than 25 years, and well below the national average for private institutions. Biola’s 2012–13 increase of 3.66 percent was nearly a quarter point below the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities average of 3.9 percent.
  • In 2011, Biola commissioned a university-wide affordability task force to identify ways to address affordability and minimize the financial impact on students.
  • In August 2012, Biola launched Open Biola, which provides students from across the world with access to free educational content.


Today, the White House launched its new college scorecard, which helps to measure colleges’ performances on several financial criteria. Biola’s scorecard documents the University’s high graduation rate and low loan default rate significantly lower than the national average. Though it also shows a relatively high net price increase from 2007-2009, these figures appear to be inaccurate and the university is seeking to verify the data reported to the federal government. Biola’s rate of increase has been far lower in recent years; the annual tuition, room and board increases over the last five years have averaged just 3.84 percent.

Some examples of Biola’s alumni employment success can be found at biola.edu/makingitmatter.