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Pell Grant Students Continue to Excel at AAU Institutions

 

Undergraduate students who receive Pell Grants to attend America’s leading research universities are more likely to obtain their degrees on time than Pell recipients at other four-year institutions, according to recent data from the United States Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Introduced more than 50 years ago, the federal Pell Grant program has helped millions of low- and middle-income Americans realize the promise of an affordable college education. Nearly 7 million students receive Pell Grants each year and nearly 90% of the grants go to students with an annual family income below $50,000.

According to the latest federal data, 77.9% of degree-seeking students who received Pell Grants at an AAU institution graduated within six years. This is 25 percentage points higher than the national average – only 52.6% of degree-seeking undergraduate students who received Pell Grants attending four-year public and private nonprofit universities graduated within six years.

In total, AAU’s 69 members in the United States enrolled nearly 68,000 students receiving Pell Grants in the 2022-23 academic year. That same academic year, AAU member Arizona State University enrolled more Pell students (4,320) than any other four-year public institution in the country. At another AAU school – the University of California, Riverside – nearly half of the student body received Pell Grants and Pell students graduated at nearly the same rate (76.6%) as students who did not receive Pell Grants (77%).

These data continue to illustrate the value AAU institutions provide to all students and the importance of enhancing affordability initiatives, such as the Pell Grant. The Pell Grant is currently capped at $7,395 per year, and its purchasing power has diminished significantly over the years because of inflation. That is why, in 2021, AAU joined the #DoublePell campaign, which seeks to increase the maximum annual Pell Grant award to $13,000. Increasing investment in Pell Grants would make college more affordable, which in turn would help more Americans access the economic and social mobility that comes with a college education.

As AAU President Barbara R. Snyder wrote back in 2021, “It is long past time to #DoublePell and secure this program’s promise for new generations of Americans.” Visit DoublePell.org to learn more about the higher education community’s campaign to #DoublePell.

* Students taken into consideration were full-time, first-time bachelor’s-degree-seeking students at four-year nonprofit universities (both public and private).


 Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe is editorial and communications assistant at AAU. Graham Andrews is research analyst at AAU.