Concerned about being able to compete with the country’s elite private schools for top-flight but cash-poor students, officials with the University of the South: Sewanee chose to cut tuition costs by 10 percent next fall.
The decision — a rare one amid years of tuition increases nationwide — will save Sewanee students $3,570 this year and has created a stir among private colleges across the country.
“[This] is a rare but bold move that very well may have reverberating effects across higher education,” said Tony Pals, a spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Small and selective private universities nationwide are anxious about how the economic recession will affect enrollment numbers long-term. Some private colleges have seen their freshman classes shrink while cheaper state universities and community colleges are booming.
Overall enrollment growth in the private-college sector was below 1 percent last year, Pals said, but schools such as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville grew more than 2 percent.