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 A discussion was recently held between President Barack Obama and Chancellor Holden Thorp on how to make college more affordable for students. This indicates an effort by the White House to address this pressing issue and bring about a much needed solution. At least a dozen higher education leaders participated in this high level meeting and Thorp was one among them.

The focus of this meeting was to effectively address the issue of reducing cost of attendance and making sure more number of people study at universities around the country. According to Thorp, the focus in this meeting was predominantly on student debt and not on rising tuition. The meeting lasted between President Obama and the attendees for half an hour, he said.

Thorp said that President was more worried about students refraining from joining colleges fearing the burden of student loan and about students who are struggling to pay back their loans. He also said that UNC students post graduate debts adjusted for inflation have considerably reduced since 2000 in spite of an approval by the Board of Trustees to increase tuition fee by 15.6 percent for in-state students. He stressed on the fact that this is certainly a matter of pride.

President Obama walked around the room interacting with the guests asking them for ideas about how to reduce cost of attendance in universities. Chancellor Holden Thorp talked about how UNC was able to save over $50 million by streamlining its administration.

The university’s efforts to enhance administrative process are supported predominantly through the Carolina Counts project. Expressing his views to the President, Thorp said that chancellors and college presidents will be aided by the national attendance to the affordability issue.

According to Thorp, the very fact that our President is interested in the subject and is willing to talk about college costs will make things easier for the rest of us. He said that this will make it easier for all of us to focus on bringing down college costs.

He said that apart from continuing to focus on streamlining its administration, the university will also develop various plans outlined at the meeting. These plans will especially focus on developing new ways to cut costs.

Some of the plans they will focus on include improving math and science “gateway courses” and making online education stronger, said Thorp. Administration’s plans for implementing ideas that were discussed in the meeting was conveyed to the group and there will certainly be more talk about this from them, said Thorp.

In today’s situation, any such measures are welcome by students. A spark ignited in one place could be the start of a sweeping fire that could transform the higher education scenario. Such discussions and initiatives must be focused upon to ensure that our nation regains their status and prestige among the world nations in the field of higher education. We can only hope that it does not shelve at the discussion level and something concrete comes out of this.