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Tuition is often the determining factor for students who want to attend high cost universities. It is the issue that our President has been trying to solve. However, students and faculty on the Hill doubt that President’s plans would bring about any positive change.

In his speech at the University of Michigan on January 27, Obama sketched out a plan to cut the cost of higher education by connecting colleges that could reduce tuition successfully with the federal aid.

The New York Times in an article specified that Obama’s plan would include increase in federal aid in the Perkins loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion. The distribution of federal fund will be based how effective the schools could reduce tuition, how well they serve low income students and how they help the students to get the most value for each dollar they spent on higher education.

Obama’s proposal would offer an additional $1 billion to states that keep the cost of higher education under control and $55 million prize will be awarded to schools that get success in developing innovative ways to increase productivity.

Obama’s plan is attracting many young voters, but the university authorities are dubious about whether the plan will get congressional approach.

Mary Jeka, Senior Vice President of University relations said that the college affordability issue is complicated and is more specific to each individual college and university. Most of the details about the President’s plan are impending, so it is too early to predict whether it can create positive impacts or not.

Obama’s proposals bear traces of the concerns that heat up the Occupy Wall Street protests. This would result in raising a strategy to combine federal student loans and decrease interest rates to help college graduates to get away from their debt.

Jeka said that President has made numerous proposals in his recent budget that emphasizes the higher education affordability. High cost universities like Tufts University support Obama’s proposals that seek to increase federal aid to students, regardless of their family income. In his speech, Obama stress that increasing tuition is not acceptable.

If the universities continue to raise tuition, they cannot get sufficient levels of federal funding. Obama warned colleges and universities, saying that they cannot assume that they will just increase tuition every year. If they cannot stop tuition from increasing, their funding from tax payers will be reduced. Obama emphasized that pushing colleges to do better and making them accountable is crucial.

Obama also called for congress to revoke a proposal that would increase the interest rate on federal student loans on July.

Patricia Reilly, the Tufts director of financial aid and co-manager of student financial services stated that she is in favor of President’s proposals to increase federal fund for need based financial aid. She also supported the administration’s efforts to keep the interest rate on federal student loan at 3.4% instead of doubling it on July, 2012.

She pointed out that it is impossible to specify how Obama’s higher education proposals might impact Tufts students without knowing all the details in them.  Those criticize Obama’s proposals state that it is an act of punishing high cost colleges and universities. They said that reducing or taking away federal aid completely from high cost institutions would affect needy students studying there.