Future issues will take up additional topics reflecting the university's commitment to measuring university performance in quality and productivity of research, teaching, extension, and service. All of us at the University of Florida welcome comments and suggestions prompted by this series. Students in public universities pay widely varying prices for their undergraduate degrees. Many states increased tuition rapidly in recent years, while others, like Florida, kept tuition stagnant even as state support for public higher education declined. In the debate over who should pay for college, we focus much attention on the financial aid that helps students and their parents pay those costs.
Financial aid means different things to different people.
To some, it implies a grant or scholarship that helps a student pay for tuition and books. To others it means loans or subsidized employment. Financial aid is all of these things. It comes from many sources, and universities distribute it to students in accord with a bewildering array of rules and regulations that apply to the financial aid dollars from each of the sources. In spite of the complexity of the details, however, we can draw a profile of the financial aid provided to students at the University of Florida.