Ivy Tech offers tuition freeze if students stay enrolled

Ivy Tech Community College will hold tuition steady for full-time students and for part-time students that never take a semester off, the school announced Thursday.

Ivy Tech is trying to keep more students continuously enrolled because its enrollment has fallen 25 percent in the past three years and because students that stay enrolled are more likely to finish their studies. Fewer than 30 percent of Ivy Tech students complete a certificate or associate's degree program in six years.

State legislators declined to approve funding for Ivy Tech building projects this year due to concerns about its declining enrollment and low completion rates.

“This is an incentive model for both our non-traditional, part-time students along with those full-time students on a two-year track to graduation,” said Ivy Tech President Tom Snyder said in a written statement.  “We know students who are continuously enrolled are more likely to complete a credential. ”

About two-thirds of Ivy Tech’s 91,000 students take fewer than 12 credit hours per semester. To qualify for the tuition freeze, those part-time students must take at least six credits hours in the fall and spring semesters, as well as at least three credit hours in the summer semester.

Full-time students must take more than 30 credit hours in each academic year to qualify for the tuition freeze.

Ivy Tech’s announcement follows plans by Purdue University and Indiana University's Bloomington campus to hold tuition steady for the next academic year.

Teresa Lubbers, Indiana’s Commissioner for Higher Education, said “Ivy Tech should be commended for taking this important step in the right direction that also supports our statewide goal for 60 percent of Hoosiers to have a quality degree or credential by 2025.”