St. Louis Graduates Degrees with Less Debt Episode 2: ‘A is for Affordability’

Two-thirds of all jobs require a postsecondary degree or certificate, but when it comes to education beyond high school, opportunity is not equal. Many barriers hold back low-income students and Black students.

On July 15, 2020 St. Louis Graduates released the Degrees with Less Debt: Postsecondary Strategies that Enhance Low-income and Black Student Success, a new report identifying what colleges and universities are doing to support low-income students and Black students to graduation with less debt. The report highlights strategies at five colleges that stand out in a statistical model as enrolling significant percentages of low-income students and Black students and supporting them to graduate with less debt.

Launching with the release of the 2020 Degrees with Less Debt report, the new video series Degrees with Less Debt will focus on the barriers facing low-income students and Black students and what colleges and universities can do to create a higher education system that supports these students. The video includes interviews with administrators and students from each of the five institutions highlighted in the report, as well as community partners.