The University of Texas Permian Basin is tackling growing concerns over college affordability with its initiative to reduce financial barriers and help more students pursue a degree.
"Can I afford to go to college?"
This question stops countless potential students from ever applying to colleges and universities like the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB).
For UTPB, the number one complaint from prospective students was confusion about tuition and costs.
This challenge wasn't just frustrating potential applicants. It actively prevented prospective students from seeing themselves as college material.
As Tatum Hubbard, Vice President for Communications and Marketing and Chief of Staff at UTPB, explained during a 2025 Cascade User Conference presentation:
"Student success is our number one pillar,” she said. “We knew to accomplish our goals, we had to come up with a way to explain to students in their early exploration stage what it costs to go to college."
WATCH HOW UTPB MAKES COLLEGE COSTS MORE TRANSPARENT FOR STUDENTS
UTPB recognized that to fulfill its mission as a regional comprehensive university serving its community, it needed to become a better guide for prospective students navigating the complex financial landscape of higher education.
Empathy for its students' struggles led UTPB to partner with Stamats, a marketing agency and one of Hannon Hill's digital partners, to create a solution.
"Affordability is one of our top values and one of the things we do well," explained Hubbard, highlighting UTPB's commitment to making education accessible.
UTPB and Stamats developed a straightforward plan to help students understand actual college costs:
Rather than overwhelming students with complex financial information, the team created a step-by-step process that anyone could follow.
Behind the external problem of cost confusion lay deeper emotional challenges for prospective students:
A Best Colleges survey confirmed what UTPB was experiencing. Most surveyed students rank affordability as the most crucial factor when choosing a school.
Yet the complexity of tuition structures often leaves students feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.
According to research by the National Center for Education Statistics, students who believe college is affordable are significantly more likely to attend.
The study showed that 80% of students who believed their family could afford college ("afforders") had attended within three years of high school, compared to just 59% of those who didn't ("non-afforders").
The 2023 CIRP Freshman Survey revealed that 70% of first-generation students and 73% of low-income students (household income less than $60,000) considered financial assistance "very important" in their college decision.
Without clear information, these students would remain in the "non-afforder" category, significantly reducing their likelihood of pursuing higher education.
The beauty of UTPB's approach was its accessibility.
Students no longer needed to commit to an application process just to understand costs. Instead, they could explore financial scenarios without pressure or commitment.
The tuition estimator asks only a few essential questions:
This low-pressure approach invites students to take that critical first step toward seeing themselves as college material.
UTPB's solution has already delivered remarkable results:
"Students were organically finding this tool and using it before we even promoted it!'" explained Sandra Fancher, Chief Innovation Officer at Stamats.
The tool's success is particularly evident in how it showcases UTPB's Falcon Free program, which provides free tuition and mandatory fees for students whose families make $100,000 or less.
This program directly addresses the affordability concerns identified in national research.
During the planning, Stamats presented an option to create an easy-to-edit flow that would allow UTPB to add/edit/delete questions and change the wording, all without programming or complex formulas. To create this flexibility, UTPB leveraged Cascade CMS and its Bricks feature, which allowed the team at UTPB to build modular content that could be updated once and reflected across all pages.
To better tell a story and not just provide a number, the team created dedicated content pages for each possible pathway that included supporting messaging around scholarships and aid.
The personas were similarly designed for easy management. Administrators can:
With its initial success, UTPB plans to expand the reach of its tuition estimator to help even more prospective students see themselves as "afforders":
The team also considers equipping recruiters with iPads to walk prospective students through the process at high school and community college fairs.
UTPB's approach offers a valuable model for institutions nationwide grappling with similar challenges around cost transparency.
By creating clear pathways to understanding college costs, UTPB is removing a significant barrier to higher education access.
UTPB's story demonstrates that with the right tools and a deep commitment to student success, colleges and universities can transform how prospective students view college affordability, potentially changing the trajectory of countless lives in the process.
Want to make college costs clearer for your prospective students?
UTPB's success shows that transparent, user-friendly tuition tools can remove barriers and boost enrollment.
With Cascade CMS, you can create interactive, easy-to-update content that simplifies affordability for students and families.
Contact us today to get started.
Last Updated: Apr 7, 2025 11:00 AM
