By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO
At a time when students and families continue to question the cost, value, and trustworthiness of higher education, a new report offers a practical framework for helping institutions respond with greater clarity.
“The Price Transparency Imperative: Rebuilding Confidence in Higher Education” by the Strada Education Foundation outlines why price clarity, financial aid transparency, and predictable cost information are no longer simply communications challenges. They are central to enrollment strategy, institutional trust, and student-centered practice.
The work shares five key findings:
Students and families still see value in higher education and the career opportunities it creates.
College costs remain both real and perceived barriers.
Financial aid and college costs are confusing.
That confusion may be breeding mistrust in colleges and universities.
Students and families want price clarity, predictability, and solutions-oriented action.
AACRAO co-led the development of the report’s Student-Centered Enrollment Management Principles alongside the American Council on Education, National Association for College Admission Counseling, and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The principles are designed to help institutions examine how they communicate cost and value, how they structure aid and scholarships, and how they build enrollment practices that students and families can understand and trust.
For AACRAO members, the principles offer a shared framework for aligning enrollment strategy with student needs.
The five principles focus on:
Access and affordability.
Tuition and cost transparency.
Aid and scholarship lifecycle sustainability.
Value and strong return on investment.
Use of personal information.
"Cost transparency is a direct bridge to institutional trust, supporting the narrative around the value of higher education. Clear information is an essential ingredient for enhancing learning mobility by helping learners make informed choices about their educational journey,” said Melanie Gottlieb, AACRAO Executive Director. “These principles offer an important framework upon which we can build clear communication about value, outcomes, and return on investment. AACRAO's next step is to embed the Principles into our professional development programs, aligned with our new competency framework to ensure that professionals are equipped to actively translate them into daily practice and lead transformation at their institutions."
“The endorsing coalition is unique, comprising higher education organizations, college access groups, and student advocates," said Justin Draeger, Senior Vice President for Affordability at Strada Education Foundation. “What's striking is that everyone, from access advocates to enrollment management professionals, agrees on clarity and predictability as the starting point.”
Three Ways Readers Can Use This Report
To help enrollment leaders and campus partners put the report into context, Draeger of the Strada Education Foundation offers guidance on three key ways institutions can act on these lessons and principles.
1. Start by identifying the confusion that fuels the trust problem
Students and families still see value in higher education, but confusion about price and financial aid can weaken confidence in institutions before a student ever enrolls.
Draeger said: “We've known for some time that price and financial aid confusion can deter student enrollments. But two things became even clearer in the last two years: the extent to which students and families are confused by college costs, and that confusion directly erodes trust in institutions. At the same time, we were hearing from more and more college presidents and practitioners who wanted to cut through the noise and talk about how affordable their institutions really are. That led us to ask where the real stumbling blocks were, and whether we could give enrollment management leaders room to develop and own shared principles.”
2. Examine both the math and the message
The report gives campuses a framework for looking honestly at what students are being asked to pay and whether that information is being communicated clearly, consistently, and early enough to support good decisions.
Draeger said: “Students and families have been clear about what they want: cost transparency, four-year price and financial aid guarantees, clear and understandable tuition plans, and single all-in prices for the year. What's implementable will vary by campus, mission, and market. But every institution can start in the same place.
Examine both the math (how much it really costs to attend) and how clearly you're communicating those costs. Do you have a coherent price narrative that admissions, financial aid, and leadership all can articulate consistently? Have you adopted the standards from the College Cost Transparency Initiative? Then comes the harder work: reexamining the pricing and financial aid structures that contribute to confusion in the first place. The schools that will lead are the ones willing to experiment with structures that lean into clarity and predictability.”
3. Move from principle endorsement to implementation
The report is a call for practical campus action, including clearer cost information, more predictable aid structures, and tools that help institutions make student-centered transparency operational.
As Draeger noted, “The good news is that knowledge allows us to act pretty quickly. Price clarity and predictability are the most direct path back to trust.” The actions will require “ developing the technical support, case studies, playbooks, and infrastructure to show institutions how to actually do this on campus.”