Dive Brief:

• Apprenticeships, long used as a training mechanism for the building trades and manufacturing, increasingly are being used in other fields, according to a new report highlighting a large health care provider in Minnesota that is employing them to train nurses and help them obtain bachelor's degrees.
• Registered nurses in the U.S. can be certified with an associate degree, a bachelor's degree or a diploma from a hospital training program, but the nursing profession now advocates for nurses to have a bachelor's. The report argues that the apprenticeship model provides nurses with an affordable way to earn their four-year degree while making sure they receive critical, on-the-job training.
• More than 120 individuals have participated in Fairview Health Services' nursing apprenticeship in Minnesota. Participants must enroll in a university-based degree program, though they are eligible for tuition assistance from Fairview.

Dive Insight:

Lowering the cost of attendance has become a top priority for colleges and universities as they seek to boost enrollment. As these two reports indicate, the costs in question extend beyond tuition.

Oregon is addressing the issue of wealthier students benefiting more from last-dollar programs because they qualify for less or no need-based aid. Its Oregon Promise scholarship awards at least $1,000 to qualifying low-income students that have tuition covered by financial aid in order to help fund non-tuition costs such as fees, transportation and textbooks, CNN reported.

In Columbus, Ohio, Marion Technical College's Get To Next Scholars program gives students a stipend to help cover textbooks if they complete 30 first-year credit hours and have at least a 2.5 GPA; second-year tuition is paid through the program. Awardees must meet regularly with academic advisers, career counselors and other students in the group.

Some critics argue that such added stipulations are unnecessary and free-college programs should have the same rules for eligibility as federal college aid programs.

The Tennessee Promise program, which was called out in the IHEP report, has been shown to increase access to college and improve graduation rates. The number of students earning a degree or certificate in five semesters increased 60% from the 2014 graduating cohort to the 2015 graduating cohort, the latter of which marked the start of the program, the Tennessean reported.

Income share agreements (ISAs) could be one way to make sure students' financial needs are met. In ISAs, the institution helps students cover the cost of tuition in exchange for a percentage of their income after graduation. However, institutions need to educate their students on this kind of arrangement as it can be confused with predatory lending schemes.