Madison-based nonprofit Ascendium Education Group is contributing $5 million in grant funding to the Universities of Wisconsin to help revive UW’s tuition-waiver program, which erases any remaining tuition fees for lower-income students, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. UW will match Ascendium’s funding with $5 million for the next cohort. The philanthropic support comes after the state Legislature last year denied the UW system’s $24.5 million request for the Wisconsin Tuition Promise in the most recent budget. UW covered the first cohort of students, who started last fall, with its own funds.
The tuition-waiver program will be in place for new students in fall 2025. It helps pay for up to four years of tuition and fees for in-state students from families that earn under $55,000 annually (down from the first cohort’s qualifying income threshold of $62,000 annually). Transfer students can receive two years of funding.
The program is a “last-dollar scholarship,” so UW picks up the remaining costs after all other funding sources — like scholarships and grants — have been exhausted. Roughly 1,300 students are expected to qualify for the program next fall. Around 6,000 qualified last fall, with 1,697 receiving grants.
