PLEASE SEE THE 'UPDATES' TAB FOR IMPORTANT NEW INFORMATION!

The Regents Scholarship at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln is a merit-based scholarship students qualify for in high school by demonstrating high academic achievement. Students who received the scholarship were told that they would receive funds for full tuition, up to 135 credit hours or completion of a bachelors degree. However, on June 15th, 16 minutes after the scholarship office closed, all Regents Scholars at UNL received the following email which reduced the number of covered credit hours to only 120 beginning this fall:

"The University of Nebraska Board of Regents recently amended the policies related to the undergraduate Regents Scholar Tuition Commitment to align with the length of your degree program. Currently, the Board of Regents policy requires all undergraduate degree programs be capped at 120 credit hours, with a few exceptions. This allows the majority of students the ability to graduate in four years when they complete an average of 15 credit hours each semester.

Starting Fall 2020, the Regents Scholar Tuition Commitment will be capped at the number of credit hours required by your degree program, typically 120 credit hours (reduced from 135 credit hours). These hours are exclusive of transfer hours from UNO, UNK, UNMC, extended education, transfer hours from another institution for education abroad, and hours earned as visiting student at Nebraska. However, credit hours earned at a University of Nebraska campus are included in Nebraska's cumulative grade point average calculation. The amendment in policy is intended to help you plan your path to graduate in four years, while achieving all of your academic goals at Nebraska."

We contacted the UNL scholarship office to confirm this change does apply to current students. This decision, made without the input of the students, negatively impacts the education of many different majors at the university, and forces students to compromise their education by reducing credits or dropping degrees in order to pay for college. It also does not take into account the additional credit requirements beyond the basic degree plan expected of pre-health, psychology, engineering, and many other majors, or the idea that students may have multiple majors or minors. Additionally, many students were between the window of 120 to 135 credit hours and now are expected to pay an additional $4000 THIS FALL.

There needs to be an exemption for current Regents students at UNL from this policy. Many of us planned our degrees with 135 covered credits in mind, and were already struggling to pay for the additional credits we need beyond that. While this policy isn't especially favorable at all, the exemption must be made for current students because we came to the university with the expectation of 135 covered credits due to our academic merit. I am beyond grateful for the academic opportunities and scholarships I have received at UNL, but for myself and many others, making this unexpected change (especially during a time of global crisis) compromises the quality of our education and jeopardizes our financial stability.