HOLLAND, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Using a proposed a “pay-it-forward” approach, the President of Hope College in Holland wants tuition to eventually be free for students, who will be asked to donate once they graduate.
The pilot “Hope Forward” program will launch this fall with 22 students whose tuition is fully funded by an anonymous donor. In an announcement Wednesday, Hope College officials said the 22 students will only need to pay for room and board.
Once they graduate, they will be asked to pay it forward by funding other students’ tuition.
Hope President Matthew Scogin reportedly has been working towards this new approach since he started at the school in September 2019. He said the school wants to offer education to students of all backgrounds and to help students graduate debt-free.
The school also believes “the business model of higher education is broken and we want to pursue a more sustainable framework,” Scogin said in the release.
Scogin says Hope would like to eventually offer fully funded tuition to all of its students. The school will need to increase its endowment to do so, it said, by more than $1 billion.
