Following in the footsteps of national top universities — Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Princeton, Brown University is dropping its tuition fees for all those students whose parents earn less than $60,000 a year.

The New York Times reports that Brown has other plans to substitute grants for student loans for all those whose families earn less than $100,000 per annum.

The new program cuts reliance on loans for all students regardless of family income, the university said in a statement posted on its Web site. Brown also announced plans to increase tuition by 3.9 percent for the 2008-9 academic year to $36,928. With room and board, the costs are $47,740 for one year.

Bloomberg.com quotes Ruth Simmons, the President of Brown University, commenting on the changes in the university policies.

“Since 2001, Brown has made financial aid for our students one of our highest priorities. Today, we take another major step forward to ensure that our nation’s best students from lower-and middle-income families can attend Brown and graduate without the enormous burden of college debt.”

According to msbc.com, this new policy will bump Brown’s budget for financial aid by 20 percent to more than $68 million by the next year.

Photo: © _Gene_

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