University of Texas to set aside $5.8 million for on-campus housing scholarships

The University of Texas is setting aside $5.8 million to assist low- and middle-income students with on-campus housing costs in the upcoming academic year as part of a new pilot scholarship program aimed at mitigating financial barriers to attending school.

The program will award $900 to $1,800 per academic year to students living in campus residence halls who qualify for the Texas Advance Commitment, a UT tuition assistance program expanded in 2019. The scholarships will be available to an estimated 3,500 eligible students, and priority will be given to those in their first year, according to a Wednesday news release.

UT's housing scholarship announcement comes a few months after the American-Statesman published a series examining housing affordability and availability at the university, including chronicling the difficulties low-income UT students face with affording the cost of living in Austin.

Under the Texas Advance Commitment, UT students from families with an adjusted gross income of up to $65,000 receive free tuition, and students from families with an adjusted gross income of up to $125,000 get tuition assistance. Students receiving free tuition will be eligible for an $1,800 housing award under the pilot program, while students receiving tuition assistance will be eligible for $900.

More: UT hasn't built on-campus housing since 2007, resulting in hurdles for students

In fall 2021, nearly 9,500 undergraduate students qualified for full tuition coverage, which is about 23% of the school’s undergraduate students.

“We have already made progress in reducing and, in some cases, eliminating the cost of tuition for our students who can least afford it, through programs such as the Texas Advance Commitment,” UT President Jay Hartzell said in the news release. “Now we are actively working to identify new and more expansive solutions to mitigate the rising cost of Austin’s housing market, which has become a more acute financial barrier. This pilot program is the next step in our strategic effort to support our students in new ways.”

According to UT's Common Data Set, in fall 2022, 9,109 first-year undergraduate students enrolled at UT and about 5,700 — or 62.9% — of them lived in campus housing. National research has shown that college students, including freshmen, living on campus have better grades, higher graduation rates and more involvement in academic and extracurricular activities.

UT will fund the scholarship program by setting aside $5.8 million from its 2023-24 housing revenue. The university will also increase campus housing costs during the upcoming academic year by a lower average percentage increase than in recent years, according to the announcement.

More: Low-income students get free tuition at UT. What about the $13,000 housing bill?

Several low-income UT students previously told the American-Statesman that though they receive free tuition, they still struggle to afford the cost of attending the university, particularly due to rising housing costs in Austin. To make ends meet, they said, they had to live miles away from campus where rents are sometimes cheaper, work additional jobs or borrow thousands of dollars.

At several large, public four-year universities in Texas, including UT, total on-campus housing costs have outpaced in-state tuition costs as the primary expense for students. For the 2022-23 academic year, the minimum cost to live in UT's on-campus housing was $12,729, which includes a meal plan, while the average cost of tuition was $11,862 for an undergraduate Texas resident taking 12 or more credit-hours.

More: University of Texas student leaders call on school to increase campus wages

According to UT, students who are eligible for the pilot program will pay less for on-campus housing in the upcoming academic year than during the current year due to the scholarship and lower rate increases. The university wrote that it launched the scholarship program as part of its "larger strategy to address housing affordability," and the program will continue to evolve based on its impact.

“This pilot scholarship program is the next step among many that we will take as we work to expand initiatives and introduce new opportunities to benefit our students,” Hartzell said. “Improving access to housing on or near campus aligns with our core objective of enabling success for all our students and ensuring the highest-potential students continue to pursue their education at UT Austin.”

UT will award the scholarships in order of when students applied for housing. Eligible first-year students who opted not to live in campus housing will be reinvited to apply, and students can use the scholarship to pay for any campus residence hall.

More: New University of Texas faculty face difficulties affording cost of living in Austin

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: UT to set aside $5.8M for on-campus housing scholarships for students