No More Tuition Appeals With GradGuard

The University of Texas at Dallas was previously refunding close to $1 million each year in tuition.

Most colleges and universities are not in a position to provide generous refunds for withdrawals, even for medical reasons, beyond the first few weeks of classes. At UT Dallas, as the number of student withdrawals grew, and so did the appeal requests. “We were getting 25 a month. From a financial perspective, we wanted to save ourselves some money, too,” Cheryl Friesenhahn, Senior Director of Financial Services said.

Friesenhahn was part of the appeals committee at UT Dallas for nearly 20 years. The committee would spend hours each month discussing individual appeals and reviewing student documentation, a process Friesenhahn called time consuming, emotionally draining, and impossible to be objective. 

Before implementing GradGuard, UT Dallas was granting up to 10 appeals per month. 

UT Dallas partnered with GradGuard to offer tuition insurance in 2021. The implementation within TouchNet’s Bill+Payment was painless.

“That was the easiest implementation I ever went through,” Friesenhahn said. 

Now, every student at UT Dallas has the opportunity to protect their investment in their education. Administrators don’t “sell” the insurance, and the offer in TouchNet’s Bill+Payment is presented as optional. UT Dallas is also provided a record of each student or family acknowledging the school’s refund policy, and whether they accepted or declined the tuition insurance. 

Since being a GradGuard partner, more students are opting for the insurance. Families see the value in it too, as it can cover more than just tuition, but also housing and academic fees.

“We’re offering them a solution in the event something happens,” Friesenhahn said. “It’s worth spending that money for some peace of mind.”

BOTTOM LINE

• Since partnering with GradGuard, UT Dallas no longer has an appeals committee review 25 appeal requests per month. 

• “This is an opportunity to remove the financial barriers that may potentially happen and for them to be able to continue on. How is that not a positive thing?” Friesenhahn said.

GradGuard’s Tuition Protection Program promotes financial literacy by helping schools disclose its refund policy and can protect families from a financial loss if their student is forced to withdraw due to a covered reason.