HOOKSETT, NH – On Wednesday, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) announced that tuition for all campus-based programs will be set at either $15,000 or $10,000 per year beginning in the Fall of 2021, a 50 percent reduction from current rates.
The announcement comes after a multi-year effort, which was accelerated earlier this year in response to the global pandemic. Over the past 8 months, hundreds of faculty and staff members worked together to fundamentally rethink the cost and delivery of campus-based education and address the growing issue of college affordability and accessibility.
“This announcement is not about a tuition reset or a cost-cutting strategy; this effort is the culmination of years of hard work to fundamentally reimagine a broken model that too often leaves students behind,” said Paul LeBlanc, President and CEO of SNHU. “When we set out to radically reduce the cost of place-based higher education, we knew that it would require a holistic approach, and we are proud of the work our teams have done tirelessly during the pandemic to rethink the cost and delivery of our campus model to put higher education within reach for more learners.”
The $15,000 per year programs, billed in $7,500 per semester installments, will focus on face-to-face instruction mixed with project-based courses, service learning, studying abroad, internships and other electives.
The $10,000 per year programs, billed at $320 per credit hour, provide a structured pathway to a degree through studio and lab work, project-based courses, internships and industry certifications with additional instruction provided in classrooms and online formats.
Room and board costs will also be reduced with all reductions coming as a restructuring of the college’s financial aid and discounting strategy. SNHU also seeks to increase on-campus enrollment from 3,000 to 4,500 by 2025. The college has long been an industry leader in online post-secondary education, with approximately 132,000 students enrolled in online classes as of 2019.
“More affordable tuition does not mean ‘less quality’ or a diminished experience,” said LeBlanc. “SNHU has a long, established history of providing high-quality affordable pathways to higher education to meet the needs of today’s students, and we are excited to build on this legacy, take what we have learned from other experimental programs we have piloted, and extend this philosophy and practice to our campus students.”