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    $1 Billion Bloomberg Gift to Hopkins Makes Tuition Free for Most Medical Students

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    The gift, made by Michael R. Bloomberg’s philanthropic organization, will also cover living expenses for some Johns Hopkins University students.A $1 billion gift from Michael Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University, announced on Monday, will allow most students at the university’s medical school to attend free of cost and will also increase financial aid for other students in the university’s schools of nursing and public health and other graduate programs.Bloomberg Philanthropies, which oversees Mr. Bloomberg’s charitable efforts, said in a statement that the gift would ensure that “the most talented aspiring doctors representing the broadest range of socio-economic backgrounds will have the opportunity to graduate debt-free” from the university.Starting with the fall semester, Johns Hopkins will offer free tuition for medical students from families that earn less than $300,000 annually, Bloomberg Philanthropies said. The university will also pay for living expenses and other fees for students from families earning up to $175,000.Mr. Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City and a graduate of Johns Hopkins, said in a statement that the high cost of medical school and graduate school “too often bars students from enrolling” at a crucial time when the United States faces a shortage of medical professionals.“By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they’re passionate about and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most,” Mr. Bloomberg said.Other universities have also been able to waive tuition for medical students in recent years. Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx did so after Ruth Gottesman, a longtime professor there, made a $1 billion donation earlier this year. In 2023, Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire financier and a founder of Home Depot, and his wife, Elaine Langone, made a $200 million donation to the N.Y.U. Long Island School of Medicine, making tuition free for medical students.This is not the first large contribution to Johns Hopkins from Mr. Bloomberg, who routinely makes donations toward the arts, education, the environment and public health. Bloomberg Philanthropies made a $1.8 billion donation to the university in 2018 as part of an effort to ensure that undergraduate students would be accepted by the university regardless of their family’s income.Ron Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement on Monday that “removing financial barriers to individual opportunity fuels excellence, innovation and discoveries that redound to the benefit of society.”The new gift from Mr. Bloomberg will mean that nearly two-thirds of medical students who currently attend Johns Hopkins or who will enter programs at the university soon will be eligible for free tuition or both free tuition and living expenses, according to the university. Those who are eligible will soon receive updated financial aid packages.José Luis Castro, the president and chief executive of Vital Strategies, a nonprofit public health organization, said on social media that the gift to Johns Hopkins was “transformational and inspiring” and that it would “help meet the growing need for doctors and public health professionals.” More

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      How to Fix the Crisis of Trust in Higher Education

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      Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been keeping track of every report I see about major budget shortfalls at universities. The general trend seems to be that the schools facing these shortfalls have declining enrollments, and state and federal funding is not meeting the financial gaps left by fewer students. Every week it seems there’s fresh bad news. Here’s a sampling:“SUNY Warns of Future $1B Deficit Without Higher Tuition or More Aid” — The Times Union, Jan. 2.“As Covid-19 relief funding runs out, UConn is expecting a $70 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, which begins in July” — The Connecticut Mirror, Jan. 23.“Penn State Plans Nearly $100M in Cuts for FY26 Budget” — Higher Ed Dive, Jan. 24.“As U. of Arizona Confronts Budget Cuts, Workers and Students Brace for the Worst” — The New York Times, Feb. 21.And those are all public universities. There are several private colleges, less-selective schools in particular, that are in dire shape — including schools in the New York metro area that are selling off some of their real estate in order to make ends meet, according to reporting from The Times’s Sharon Otterman. Josh Moody at Inside Higher Ed clocked 14 four-year nonprofit institutions that closed their doors in 2023, and those schools “largely fit the same profile: mostly small, private, tuition-dependent institutions with meager endowments that have seen enrollment slipping for years and have been unable to recover from those sustained losses.”A few long-term trends have combined to create this growing crisis. One is the declining birthrate since the Great Recession, which is causing an “enrollment cliff” based on the numbers of potential students turning 18 over the next decade. The other is the decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education. According to Gallup, in terms of party identification, that decline is sharpest among Republicans. Still, all of the demographic groups that Gallup assessed registered a significant decline in confidence since 2015.This matters for the future of work in America, not just for the young people who may be missing out on the wage premium attached to a college education. In his 2018 book, “Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education,” Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College, writes, “Analysts estimate we would need to increase degree production by approximately 40 percent to meet work force needs in coming years.” But it’s not just our national economic need that’s at stake. We need an educated population to meet the civic and intellectual challenges of the 21st century — challenges that seem to be moving ever faster as technology continues its rudderless and frequently inhumane progress.I called Grawe, who is also the author of the 2021 book “The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes,” to ask how colleges and universities can help address the issues of fewer students and declining confidence. (As a side note: The most selective institutions will be just fine — for all the concern lately about their reputations, they are in no danger of enrollment declines or budget shortfalls.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Money in College Savings Accounts Can Now Go Toward Retirement

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      But there are caveats to moving the money into Roth I.R.A.s, and the government still has to issue guidelines about the option.Starting this year, some of the money in 529 college savings accounts can be used for retirement if it’s not needed for education.New rules under the federal law known as Secure 2.0 allow up to $35,000 in a 529 account to be rolled over to a Roth individual retirement account for the beneficiary of the 529 account if certain conditions are met.State-sponsored 529 accounts, named for a section of the tax code, are used to pay for education expenses — mainly college costs. Money deposited in the accounts grows tax free and can be withdrawn tax free to pay for eligible expenses like tuition, housing, food and books.The new Roth option is aimed at parents who may be reluctant to save in a 529 because they worry about having to pay income taxes and a penalty if for some reason the funds aren’t needed for college and they want to withdraw the money.“It is parents’ No. 1 objection to opening a 529,” said Vivian Tsai, chair emeritus of the College Savings Foundation, a group that includes big financial firms that run the state college savings programs. “The barrier is really psychological.” (Ms. Tsai is also senior director and head of relationship management for the education savings unit at TIAA, a large investment firm that manages 529 plans in seven states.)Many families struggle to save for college, and accumulating “too much” money is usually not a problem. “The vast majority of account holders do not save enough,” Ms. Tsai said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More