Austin Community College’s Free Tuition Pilot program doubled its number of students over the last year.
The pilot program began in the fall of 2024. The first year, participation was higher than what administrators had expected. A total of 4,894 enrolled in the 2025 Spring semester. Now, a year later, participation has grown to nearly 10,000 students.
Jenna Cullinane Hege, ACC’s Vice Chancellor of Institutional Research and Analytics, says the college has done a series of interviews with students who have received the free tuition benefit. She says the program appears to be having a meaningful effect on three specific types of students: Those who thought they wouldn’t be able to attend college at all for economic reasons; those who would have waited a couple of years until they had sufficient funds to attend college; and those who planned on getting only a certificate and jumping into the workforce.
The program was created to make college more accessible for students who otherwise wouldn’t have pursued a higher education degree. Students can attend ACC without having to pay tuition and general fees for up to three years or up to five years if students seek one of the bachelor’s degrees the college offers.
This year, almost 24% of ACC's total student population is working on getting a higher education degree without having to pay tuition. Since the start of the program, high school students from more than 20 public school districts in Central Texas have been able to enroll in the free tuition program. Homeschooled and students who earned their GED after June of 2023 have also been able to take advantage of it.
“We have been really thrilled with the initial response around [the] increase in enrollment, what that means is that we are not only changing ACC but we are changing our community,” Cullinane Hege told KUT.
According to the latest numbers from the Higher Education Coordinating Board in 2024, when the program was launched, there was a decrease in the number of high school students in the ACC’s service area who didn’t attend college.
When the pilot program was first approved by the ACC board of trustees, board members said it was successful, they would consider expanding it to other student groups. But Cullinane Hege said, for now their current focus is the priority.
“It’s not enough to welcome students in the front door, we really want to make sure that they are on a good path to completion and transfer, and that’s the hard work now,” said Cullinane Hege.
ACC is also seeing a surge this year in workforce-aligned and health-related programs. Enrollment in their Advanced Manufacturing, Skilled Trades and Health Sciences programs went up more than 17% each.
