Graduating Students With Financial Freedom

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As an anchor institution, UHD seeks to prepare students to become workforce-ready, contributing citizens and community leaders after graduation. As Blanchard noted in his 2022 State of the University address, “We are preparing students with the mindset that their degree—and the knowledge and experience it represents—will propel them to both greater socioeconomic heights as well as position them to be civic leaders who are creating a more just and sustainable future for their communities.”

That goal is only achievable if students graduate free from crushing debt.

For many UHD graduates, student loan debt is vastly lower than that of graduates from other four-year Texas public universities. In fact, UHD’s graduates have the lowest debt in the Lone Star State, according to an Institute for College Access & Success report comparing the 25 Texas colleges that awarded the most bachelor’s degrees in 2019-20. Among those universities, UHD ranked the lowest for average amount of debt ($4,902—the only institution in the comparison whose students averaged less than $10,000 in debt at graduation). In addition, UHD graduates had some of the lowest percentages of debt among all the universities compared—only 14% of UHD’s graduates had any debt at graduation, and none had private debt. In fact, of the 2,658 UHD bachelor’s degree recipients in the 2019-20 academic school year, only 372 were associated with any debt at all.

Ensuring minimal impact when it comes to debt is a priority at UHD, achieved through a variety of financial assistance programs and scholarships (see Donors, p. 31). Approximately 82% of full-time UHD students receive on average $10,000 in scholarships, grants, and/or loans annually.

As Blanchard has noted, “Our graduates’ ability to enter the workforce with little or no debt speaks volumes about the determination of our students as well as the affordability of a UHD education.”