"Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 8, 2025, the enrollment management consulting firm EAB surveyed 8,106 current and prospective graduate and adult learners about their motivations, financial concerns, program search methods and program preferences. The findings, published Thursday in EAB's 2025 Adult Learner Survey, show that cost ranked as the most important factor in enrollment decisions, surpassing program accreditation, which was last year's top factor."
"The majority of prospective students (60 percent) said they would eliminate a program from consideration if they perceived it to be "too expensive." Although data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that the average annual cost of graduate school is more than $20,000, EAB's survey found that 39 percent of learners believe anything more than $10,000 is too expensive; 62 percent said they wouldn't be willing to pay more than $20,000 a year for graduate school."
"Federal aid sources are shrinking, and students with low credit scores may not qualify for private loans. This mismatch will make it even harder to sustain enrollment at a time when institutions need domestic adult learners more than ever."
Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 8, 2025, EAB surveyed 8,106 current and prospective graduate and adult learners about motivations, financial concerns, program search methods, and program preferences. Cost emerged as the top factor in enrollment decisions, overtaking accreditation. Sixty percent of prospective students would eliminate a program perceived as too expensive. Although the average annual cost of graduate school exceeds $20,000, 39 percent of learners view anything over $10,000 as too costly and 62 percent would not pay more than $20,000. Shrinking federal aid, tighter private loan access, loan caps, research funding cuts, and visa restrictions are pressuring institutions' ability to attract and retain adult learners.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]