A tuition reduction for Bible majors has been approved and will be implemented for next year’s incoming freshmen.
Dr. Robert Rhodes, provost, said the College of Biblical Studies offered the initial idea, and campus leaders met to discuss the possibilities.
“We met as a campus leadership looking at everything from financial aid to admissions to each of the offices involved to be sure this is something that is affordable and is it something that we can offer and sustain,” he said.
Rhodes said each student would know they would not pay more than half of the typical tuition coming in, which is typically the case with students already through scholarships and aid from the CBS. This way potential Bible majors would know ahead of time that cost will not be as big a factor as they might have originally thought.
He said the College of Biblical Studies will establish guidelines and review procedures similar to those for other scholarship recipients to monitor applicants and funding.
Rhodes said several things prompted the reduction.
He said more ministry training programs have been implemented in ACU’s sister schools. As a result, students have more and more schools and programs to choose from, so the programs are getting smaller.
Rhodes said the schools have different price points. All schools provide a cost calculator on their website that starts with total tuition. He said most students don’t pay total tuition but, as Bible majors look for a school, they chose a school with cheaper tuition before they get a good look at ACU.
“Where we typically end up with our Bible majors, both through institutional support and endowment support through the College of Biblical Studies, is very close to half tuition for our students on average,” Rhodes said. “We’ve never advertised it that way. So we have to take the students that seek us out and then begin to work with them, and there’s some who don’t seek us out because we seem too expensive.”
Rhodes said the tuition reduction will show ACU is competitive in price and provides greater value than an online calculator shows.
He said he thinks it is important to have the next generation of ambassadors for ACU who are in churches, whether in the pulpit or youth ministry.
“We need the next generation of ambassadors being trained here who will go and work in churches, but also be advocates for ACU,” he said.
