Since President Mun Choi announced a major investment in need-based scholarships in September, the University has secured $80 million for the Ë¿¹Ïapp Promise and Opportunity Scholarships. Of the $80 million, the Ë¿¹Ïapp contributed $20 million by matching funds for scholarships at University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Missouri-Columbia, with the ultimate goal of contributing $75 million towards these scholarships over the next five years. Successful funding is the result of partnerships between the Ë¿¹Ïapp System, individual universities and community contributions. The integration of philanthropic support was a major point in President Choi’s September address, in which he outlined up to $260 million in future investments for the Ë¿¹Ïapp System. As part of the agreement, each university will be required to match and then seek philanthropic support to expand the benefits of the system investments going forward.
Investment matching was provided by Ë¿¹ÏappKC and MU, as well as by several community partners. The with , a program that provides financial help to students from low- and modest-income families in the Kansas City area who are interested in pursuing higher education. In November 2018, Ë¿¹ÏappKC Chancellor Agrawal announced a $20 million investment for the Ë¿¹Ïapp Promise and Opportunity scholarships, including $10 million from KC Scholars, $5 million from the Ë¿¹Ïapp System and $5 million from Ë¿¹ÏappKC.
In December 2018, an additional $40 million investment in the Ë¿¹Ïapp Promise and Opportunity Scholarship program, with $20 million from KC Scholars, $10 million from the Ë¿¹Ïapp System and $10 million from MU. Like the Ë¿¹ÏappKC program, the scholarships will provide up to $50,000 to students to attend MU. The partnership is expected to provide financial support for up to 800 students at MU over the next 8 years.
In January 2019, the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation and the H&R Block Foundation pledged a total of $10 million towards scholarships at Ë¿¹ÏappKC. The expands the existing Ë¿¹ÏappKC Henry W. Bloch Scholars program to serve approximately 200 students. The Bloch scholarships target promising students from urban neighborhoods who would not be considered for traditional scholarship programs due to past academic performance or life circumstances. Like the KC Scholars investments, these were matched by the Ë¿¹Ïapp System and Ë¿¹ÏappKC, for a total of $20 million.
New scholarship opportunities are part of a systemwide initiative to lower the cost of higher education and reduce student debt. Other efforts in the cost-reduction initiative include development of an Open Educational Resources (OER) network and a new partnership with Cengage, one of the largest textbook publishers in the United States. The Ë¿¹Ïapp System continues to explore methods of lowering student costs, including seeking interested community groups to expand the Ë¿¹Ïapp Promise and Opportunity Scholarship program as well as the Next Generation Merit Scholarship program, a merit-based opportunity, to all four universities.
Reviewed 2019-03-08