Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

The College Board released its annual Trends in College Pricing report this week. You can read about it on the College Board’s site or in any of the multiple news outlets that covered the annual report - including the New York Times, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many others.

Tuition continued to rise this year across the country and in all postsecondary sectors, despite the dire economy. In the independent sector, average tuition and fees across the nation rose 4.4% over 2008-09. In Kentucky, the average tuition and fees at AIKCU institutions increased by 4.83%. (These increases are less than in previous years, where increases typically averaged around 6%. It is also important to note that few students pay this published “sticker price” after factoring in financial aid.)

As this Graph of the Week shows, Kentucky’s average published tuitions and fees remain low in comparison to other private colleges in the South and in the nation. As they have been historically, AIKCU average tuitions remain significantly lower than the Southern and national averages.

Download Average Published Tuition and Fees at Four-Year, Nonprofit Private Colleges, 2009-10 (PDF)

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

Last week our graph of the week showcased some new KHEAA analysis regarding Kentucky student aid recipients by ACT and income level. While our graph provided a snapshot of that data, you can now find KHEAA’s full data tables posted on the Higher Education Work Group site.

Today we want to shift gears and a sense of bachelor’s degree attainment among adults 25 or older in Kentucky by county. Currently about 20 percent of Kentucky adults possess a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, as this map created by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education shows, percentages of bachelor’s degree attainment vary widely across the commonwealth. This map comes straight from the CPE Data Portal, where you can also find the county level data.

Download a PDF version of this map from the CPE Data Portal.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

There has been a great deal of discussion among the Governor’s Higher Education Work Group about the mix of financial aid programs in Kentucky and how effectively Kentucky’s three major financial aid programs - College Access Program (need-based), Kentucky Tuition Grant (need-based for private college students), and Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (merit-based) - are serving the populations they are designed to serve.

Yesterday, KHEAA’s research staff presented new data to the HEWG that analyzed Kentucky student aid recipients broken out by ACT score, income, and attendance status (full or part-time). KHEAA’s analysis went once step further to also include the amount the students in the various income brackets should expect to receive in federal Pell Grants and what their expected family contribution, as determined by the federal government, would be.

The data indicated that Kentucky’s “big three” aid programs are structured to provide an appropriate mix of financial aid and do indeed serve the traditional student populations as intended. (There are acknowledged and serious issues regarding financial aid for adult students, who do not qualify for the merit-aid program, and part-time students.)

The KHEAA analysis revealed that Kentucky’s lowest income students, regardless of ACT score, received combined state and federal grant aid (min. $7500) to cover tuition and fees at a public university. Students in the highest income quintile with the highest ACT scores could expect to receive $2478, (almost all in state merit aid).

To show this graphically, we’ll compare student aid receipts for students who scored between 21 and 23 on the ACT (the middle range in KHEAA’s analysis) from the second-lowest family income quintile ($12,768-$27,275) and the highest income quintile ($82,675+).

As the graph indicates, those students from the 2nd lowest income bracket and an ACT of 21-23 can expect to receive about $8300 in combined state and federal aid, while students in the high income bracket received about $2000.

This was a really nice piece of data work by KHEAA to quantify what we have believed all along: Kentucky’s financial aid programs are generally well-structured and work as they are intended for full-time, traditional age students.

We will add a link when the charts are posted on the Web so you can see more of the data.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

Earlier this week the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education released its 2009 Preliminary Enrollment Report. The good news is that Kentucky’s total postsecondary enrollment grew by 5 percent over the previous fall. The strongest growth took place in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Overall AIKCU growth from 2008 to 2009 was a modest but steady 2.8 percent. A record 31,264 total students are enrolled at AIKCU institutions this fall. (See our earlier post for more on AIKCU’s fall numbers.)

This week’s graph illustrates the annual and 10 year percent increases in Kentucky’s total postsecondary enrollment by sector.

Download Enrollment growth in Kentucky by sector (PDF)

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

We’ve looked at student aid to AIKCU students in previous Graphs of the Week, including a historical look at the growth of state aid to AIKCU students since the postsecondary reform of the late 1990s. Today we present some preliminary 2008-09 state student aid data that we just received from the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority.

Preliminary data show total disbursements to AIKCU students under the “Big Three” state aid programs equaled $53,861,637 in 2008-09, a 3.01% increase over the  $52,289,937 disbursed to AIKCU students in 2007-08.

The good news is that thanks to both the Governor and the General Assembly, student financial aid has been spared from the budget reductions that have affected almost every other area of state spending. The bad news is that the economic downturn has resulted in increased student need for all three of these already strained state aid programs and the state budget situation remains dire.

Download Kentucky student aid to AIKCU students, 2008-09 (preliminary) PDF

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

Last week we didn’t have a graph of the week, partly because our entire office was in Bowling Green for the CPE meeting at WKU, an AIKCU board meeting, and the Governor’s Conference on Postsecondary Trusteeship. In lieu of a graph of the week for last Friday, you may wish to check out the Annual Report to the CPE that President Gary S. Cox and several of our presidents made last Thursday.

In our last Graph of the Week we used data from The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual Higher Education Almanac to see how the educational attainment of Kentucky adults measures up against the rest of the nation. Today we are looking at the estimated number of high school graduates in Kentucky this 2009-10 school year and the projected number of Kentucky high school graduates in 2019-20.

You quickly see why it is so important that Kentucky continue to expand efforts to increase the educational attainment of adults: Kentucky’s population of high school graduates (and therefore traditional age college students) is not only not growing, it is shrinking.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

Last week we used data from The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual Higher Education Almanac to examine the percentage of traditional age college freshmen who stay in-state for college. This week we’re again looking to data published in the Almanac to see how the educational attainment of Kentucky adults measures up against the rest of the nation.

Download: Educational attainment of adults (PDF)

These numbers illustrate that despite Kentucky’s progress, there is still much work to be done to raise educational attainment levels in the Commonwealth.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

In our last graph we looked at high school students taking college courses through dual credit/dual enrollment programs in Kentucky. This time we will look at traditional age college freshmen, or students who enroll the fall after they graduate from high school.

Let’s see what percentage of Kentucky high school graduates stay in-state for college, and how that stacks up against the national average.

Download: College freshmen who stay in-state (PDF)

There are multiple reasons for Kentucky’s higher than average percent of in-state students, but this is a positive sign. In order for Kentucky to raise our overall educational attainment levels as called for in the 1997 postsecondary reforms, we must retain high numbers of our brightest while also recruiting top students from other states to study (and then stay) in the Commonwealth. It also likely means that Kentucky’s student financial aid programs are having a positive effect on keeping students in-state.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

This week are taking a look at an important segment of the postsecondary education students in Kentucky: high school students who take college courses while they are still in high school. Today’s graph shows AIKCU’s steady service in this area as well as how dual enrollment patterns changed from Fall 2001 to Fall 2007. 15 AIKCU campuses are serving high school students through dual credit or dual enrollment programs. Some are taught on the college campus, while others are taught at the high school by qualified instructors.

AIKCU campuses continue to play a significant role in this market, even though growth has not been near as rapid as it has in the public sectors. From Fall 2001 to Fall 2007 dual credit/enrollments at AIKCU campuses increased by 14%. During the same time dual credit/enrollment increased by 278% at Kentucky’s four-year public universities and 239% at two-year public colleges.

Each Friday (almost) on AIKCU.org we feature a new graphic that highlights an important aspect of independent higher education in Kentucky.

With students about to head back to campus for the fall, we thought it would be a good time to look at some of the characteristics of AIKCU campuses and students and how those may have changed over time.

One common misperception about independent colleges is that they are less diverse than other institutions. So this week we examined the percentage of African-American students at Kentucky’s four year colleges and universities. As you can see, AIKCU members have made great strides in the number of minority students they serve and serve similar proportions of black students as Kentucky’s public institutions.

Download: Percent of African-American students at Kentucky institutions (PDF)