Eastern Kentucky University to provide textbooks to students for free
Starting in fall 2021, Eastern Kentucky University will be providing required textbooks to all of its undergraduates at no cost to students.
After registering for classes, students will get their books and other course materials mailed to them, university officials said in a video announcement Monday. Students can also pick up their books at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Richmond campus.
Students attending online and in-person will be eligible for the program. Course materials may come in an online format if a professor selects an eBook or other online resource for the course. According to the university, the books will be sent on loan to students and have to be returned to the bookstore by semester’s end. Students can opt to purchase the books at a discounted price.
The program, called EKU BookSmart, makes the school the first public university in Kentucky to provide textbooks to students. The textbook program comes from the university’s partnership with Barnes & Noble.
“Over the last year, we have been focused on adding affordability and accessibility elements to a program we call the EKU Advantage,” said EKU President David McFaddin in a release. “With the addition of free textbooks to the EKU Advantage, a college degree from EKU is now more accessible and affordable than it has been in many years. We are investing in our students so they will be prepared to succeed when their classes begin.”
The estimated cost to the university will be $4-5 million per year and will vary based on student enrollment “and a few other cost and funding resource factors,” said university spokesperson Kristi Middleton.
In the 2019-2020 school year, EKU had just over 10,800 undergraduate students, data from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education shows.
“Eliminating financial barriers to success is our job,” said Barry Poynter, senior vice president for finance and administration, in a release. “We’ve all seen the national studies showing an average annual cost of textbooks for an academic year at about $1,200. Removing a barrier to academic access and student success of this magnitude is opportunity in action. We are directly reducing the cost of attendance at EKU by providing textbooks and course materials to our students, and also providing some additional stability.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 10:36 AM.