College affordability has never been more important — and a key component of affordability is helping students understand how much they’re going to pay up-front.  However, the Government Accounting Office recently published a critical analysis of student aid offers and legislation has been introduced in Congress to establish a single federal form to govern all student federal financial aid offers. 

To bring more clarity and transparency for students and families regarding their financial aid awards, NAICU and nine other major national higher education associations developed the College Cost Transparency Initiative (CCT). The initiative has established common terminology that institutions would voluntarily adopt when making award offers to prospective students so families clearly understand the terms and can compare the costs of different institutions. 

At the core of the national effort are a set of principles and standards created by the Initiative’s task force, which NAICU President Barbara Mistick serves on, that institutions can commit to use in their financial aid award letters and become a “partner institution.”  Institutions that adopt these standards will be listed on the CCT website.  While the initiative’s goal is to have institutions from all sectors adopt these standards before new award letters are sent this fall, institutions that wish to adopt the standards later in the cycle have the option of listing a different start date.  

The CCT Initiative plans to publicly launch with its initial list of partner institutions in early September. 

In addition to work by the Department of Education in this area, the legislation introduced in Congress to create a single federal form to govern all aid offers is less flexible in meeting the varying needs of different institutions than the tool created by the CCT Initiative.  

NAICU encourages its members to review the materials to see if the proposals fit their institutional mission.  Institutions wishing to sign onto the initiative may submit their commitment online and will be asked to reaffirm their commitments every two years. Questions can be directed to info@collegeprice.org. If you have specific comments for NAICU, please direct them to Justin Monk, NAICU’s director of student and institutional aid.