Deferred Tuition Studied

A Trustees' Financial Aid Committee is investigating alternative ways of instituting some form of deferred tuition plan, as a partial answer to the increasing burden of rising tuitioncosts.

Yale last year became the first major university in the country to adopt a deferred tuition payment plan. Its system ties repayment to the income the graduate makes in later years.

Paul F. Young, Treasurer of the College and chairman of the Trustees' committee, has said that the committee is currently working on plans which would provide for a fixed repayment schedule, unrelated to income levels.

With educational costs of the College rising at a ten to eleven percent annual rate and tuition charges going up only seven or eight percent a year, some method of deferred payment is needed to close the gap without increasing the financial burden on students' families, Young said.

The College already offers loans to students at low interest rates, if financial need can be demonstrated. Some of the money comes from federal funds, under the National Defense Education Act, which match contributions from the College; other loan funds are made available by the Dartmouth Education Association, a group of about 2000 alumni who contribute $10 each per year.

Under proposed deferred tuition plans, long-term loans would be made with money borrowed from private lending institutions.