The University of Michigan Board of Regents has passed a program that will give free tuition to students whose families make under a certain amount of money.
The “Go Blue Guarantee” will give free tuition to in-state students whose family income is less than $65,000 per year.
It’s the first program of its kind for any university in Michigan and differs from the “Kalamazoo Promise” program.
In the "Kalamazoo Promise" program, a group of anonymous donors pay 100 percent of tuition at any Michigan college for students who lived in the Kalamazoo school district, went to all four years of high school and graduated from the district.
It will launch Jan. 1, 2018 and was approved as part of the fiscal year 2018 general fund budget.
"Today, our long-standing commitment to ensuring that qualified students from Michigan can afford a U-M education becomes a guarantee," President Mark Schlissel said in a release. "The 'Go Blue Guarantee' cuts through the complexities of financial aid to help us reach talented students from all communities in our state."
Also at the meeting, the board approved a 2.9 percent increase for in-state tuition, making it #14,826 for the most common lower-division rate. Out of state tuition increased 4.5 percent and tuition for most grad programs increased 4.1 percent.
