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Dell Foundation And UT Austin Launch A New $100 Million College Completion Partnership: It’s A Blockbuster

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The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin announced a groundbreaking new partnership aimed at closing the income gap in college graduation rates. The partnership, which was announced Friday, is being funded initially with a $100 million grant from the Dell Foundation that will provide the necessary support for the effort over its first ten years. After 2030, UT-Austin is committed to picking up the costs of the services that make up the core support recipients will receive.

The partnership builds on the national model of the Dell Scholars program, a well-established approach that has achieved graduation rates for low-income students that are about four times higher than the national average. It will bring those efforts to scale at UT-Austin, which has made the success of low- and middle-income students an institutional priority. Its Texas Advance Commitment, a tuition assistance program, which was expanded last year, offers financial aid to help offset tuition costs for Texas students with family adjusted gross incomes (AGI) up to $125,000. Tuition is completely covered for students from families with AGIs up to $65,000. 

Beginning this fall, all entering Pell recipients will be eligible for the partnership’s new support. Approximately 2,000 new Pell students enroll at UT-Austin each year, so after four years the steady-state participation will exceed 8,000 students.

The Dell Foundation and the university will use the $100 million grant to close the gap in college completion across income levels and ensure Pell-eligible students have the resources needed to help them complete their degrees at the same rates as higher income peers.

Here’s how the program will work. Incoming Pell-eligible, first-year students will become part of the Dell Scholars program. In addition, each one of these Dell Scholars at UT Austin who comes from a family with an expected family contribution (the amount a family is expected to pay for their child's college education) of less than $1,000 will receive a scholarship of $20,000 over his or her time in college that can be used to pay various costs of attendance, including room and board, transportation, supplies, and other expenses such as child care, medical costs and financial emergencies. For Texas residents, that funding will come on top of the university’s Texas Advance Commitment.

Financial support is obviously a necessity for students from low-income backgrounds, but colleges are learning that closing graduation gaps requires more than just money. With the Dell Foundation’s grant, UT-Austin is stepping up to address those additional needs.

The Dell Scholars at UT Austin will receive ongoing and individualized support from UT for Me – Powered by Dell Scholars, which is designed to level the playing field for students from low-income backgrounds. This wrap-around support includes: 

  • Personalized, multi-faceted support
  • Financial aid coaching and financial literacy training
  • Tutoring and textbook support
  • A laptop computer
  • Peer advising support
  • Internship and career planning
  • Connections to university resources and programming
  • On-track graduation planning

With the new program, the Dell Foundation and UT-Austin have set an ambitious goal: raising the six-year graduation rates for Pell-eligible students from 73% to 90%. This increase would exceed the university’s current overall six-year graduation rate of 86%.

In the press announcement of the new partnership, UT-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves said, “A college education has the power to change the life of a student and the future of their family and community. As a result of our groundbreaking partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin is poised to increase opportunities for thousands of talented students whose potential to achieve will be met with unprecedented commitment, resources and support.”

Anytime a university receives $100 million dollars it’s big news. When the money is focused solely on helping lower-income students succeed it’s bigger news. But when the gift is also designed to provide a full suite of personalized student support services, providing the kinds of advising, mentoring, mental health counseling and peer support that students need to help them persist to graduation, it’s a headline. A blockbuster.

President Fenves summed up the significance of the partnership by a poignant reference to just one student: “Today we heard from one student and her journey as a Dell Scholar, how she came to UT, how as a Dell Scholar she was able to overcome her obstacles, graduate and now she has the career of her dreams. That one student illustrates what we are going to be able to do for thousands of students at the University of Texas.”

Think about a future when that one student becomes thousands. The Dell Scholars at UT Austin has set the new standard for how to help students of all economic backgrounds succeed in college.

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