Trustees set 2024-25 tuition, reaffirm strong financial aid

The Stanford Board of Trustees approved a 5.5% increase in tuition and a 7% increase in room and board for the 2024-2025 school year.

The tuition increase will help maintain the strength of Stanford’s comprehensive need-based financial aid program as well as help address increases in operating costs due to inflation. Stanford has one of the most robust financial aid programs in the country, and it has undergone several major enhancements in recent years. For example, the Board of Trustees expanded the university’s financial aid program last year so families of undergraduates with annual incomes below $100,000 will not have to pay tuition, room, or board. Stanford also requires no parental contribution toward tuition from families with annual incomes below $150,000 and typical assets.

“Stanford continues working to ensure that students can access an affordable education through our strong financial aid program,” said board Chair Jerry Yang. “This tuition increase will help support the Stanford community and its programs as we weather higher costs of serving our students.”

Undergraduate charges for those who pay the full price will total $87,225 next year, which includes $65,127 for tuition, $21,315 for standard room and board, and $783 for the mandatory health fee. General graduate tuition will increase by 4% next year, and some professional programs may have different increases. Those will be posted later in the year to the Student Services website.

Stanford’s aid program will take into account the tuition increase for current students receiving need-based financial aid; those whose family financial circumstances don’t change can expect to pay the same amount they do this year.

Tuition provides about half of the university’s general funds, which support essential ongoing operations, need-based undergraduate financial aid, and new program investments.

Room and board revenue directly funds the operations of Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE), which includes Stanford’s student housing, dining, conference, and retail facilities.

About two-thirds of undergraduates receive some form of aid to attend Stanford, and 58% receive scholarships, including athletic scholarships, from Stanford.

Trustees also learned more about efforts to hone students’ skills in civil discourse, and how the university is addressing an increased focus on research security during the board’s meeting Feb. 5–6.

Research

While international collaboration and engagement remains critically important to Stanford’s research mission, the growing complexity and cost of research security requirements are posing challenges for the university, Vice Provost and Dean of Research David Studdert told trustees.

In recent years, the federal government has rapidly ramped up the rules and requirements governing international research engagements in response to national security concerns about malign activities by certain foreign governments and organizations.

As a result, research universities like Stanford must balance legitimate security concerns with its commitment to ensuring openness and nondiscrimination in research, said Ryan Adesnik, vice president for government affairs.

To conform with new federal requirements, the university is in the process of establishing a Research Security Program, and has launched an initiative to enhance processes for pre-award disclosures and Conflict of Interest/Conflict of Commitment reporting. Also, Stanford’s Global Engagement Review Program offers support and advice to those conducting international research to facilitate compliance with regulations and mitigate risk from foreign influence, said George Triantis, senior associate vice provost for research, and the Charles J. Meyers Professor in Law and Business.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Director John Sarrao said national labs have been grappling with striking this balance for a long time, and he emphasized that clarity, transparency, education, and awareness are key to effective processes and risk management.

Civil discourse

Stanford is helping students discuss difficult issues in a constructive fashion through programs such as the Stanford School of Law’s ePluribus initiative and the first-year Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) requirement, scholars told trustees in a presentation to the Committee on Student, Alumni, and External Affairs.

COLLEGE, which began in 2021, emphasizes a shared intellectual experience and development of citizenship skills, said Dan Edelstein, faculty director of Stanford Introductory Studies and the William H. Bonsall Professor in French and professor, by courtesy, of history and of political science in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

A multi-modal assessment reflects some very positive student feedback thus far, with most reporting that the Why College? course has helped them learn how to see others’ perspectives and participate in discussion seminars, Edelstein told trustees. The assessment also indicates ongoing challenges; for example, a quarter of respondents report a reticence to state their opinions in class for fear of social repercussions.

ePluribus started at the Law School in hopes of reducing polarization and promoting productive disagreement. The latter must be cultivated by engaging with people whose identities and ideas are different from one’s own, said Norman Spaulding, the Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor in Law.

The initiative involves law students in interactive workshops to work on skills such as active listening and cognitive bias awareness. It has expanded to include small reading groups on challenging topics and outside speakers with expertise working across differences.

ePluribus is also funding a research project to analyze the effectiveness of specific skills in navigating difficult conversations. While initial research results are encouraging, there are powerful headwinds in the form of affective polarization and social media algorithms that amplify misunderstanding, Spaulding said.

“We don’t have the luxury of leaving pluralism skills to chance,” Spaulding told trustees. “It’s not just an obligation of higher education to get this right but an obligation of democratic citizenship as well.”

Building project

The board also approved construction for a renovation project that will support a significant expansion of the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities program in the End Station 3 building.

The project will transform the existing facility into a cutting-edge multidisciplinary research and education hub, and the space will house state-of-the-art instrumentation. Construction is expected to commence this spring.