The University of Pennsylvania announced today that it has authorized a $196 million financial-aid budget for 2014-15 — the largest in the University’s history — while increasing total undergraduate charges by 3.9 percent.

This represents the sixth consecutive year that Penn has kept its tuition growth under 4 percent. Since Amy Gutmann became Penn’s president in 2004, Penn’s financial-aid budget has grown by 148 percent, averaging 8.6 percent per year, almost double the average annual growth in total charges.

“One of Penn's highest evergreen priorities has been to eliminate all financial barriers for young women and men with exceptional promise who attend the University of Pennsylvania,” Gutmann said of the financial-aid increase. “With Penn's all-grant, no-loan aid program, we have opened the doors every year for thousands of outstanding students to pursue their education unhindered by financial obligations that outweigh their family’s or their own means.”

Total undergraduate charges for 2014-15 — tuition, fees and room and board — will increase by 3.9 percent. Undergraduate tuition will increase to $42,176 from $40,594; room and board will increase to $13,464 from $12,922; and fees will increase to $5,492 from $5,296. Tuition and fees cover only 70 percent of the direct cost of delivering a Penn education.

As a result of Penn's all-grant, no-loan financial-aid program, the average net cost for aided students to attend Penn today is almost $2,000 less than it was in 2005 in constant 2005 dollars.

Penn has substituted grants for loans for all aid-eligible undergraduates since 2009. Next year, the average grant for students is estimated at $41,700.

This year 47 percent of Penn’s undergraduate students received need-based grants from the University. Most undergraduates from families with incomes of less than $180,000 are receiving grant assistance, and the typical student with family income of less than $40,000 receives grant aid that covers full tuition, room and board.

During the past several years, as increasing numbers of students have required financial assistance, Penn has maintained its commitment to meeting full need with all-grant, no-loan packages.

Penn is one of fewer than 50 private institutions in the United States that admit academically qualified students without regard to their families' ability to pay while also meeting the determined full need of all undergraduates. With 10,300 undergraduates, Penn is the largest school in the nation to offer an all-grant, no-loan financial-aid program for undergraduates.

Increasing educational access was a key priority of Penn’s recently completed Making History campaign, which raised $4.3 billion. The campaign raised $366.3 million for undergraduate student aid, exceeding its goal of $350 million.

Additional information on undergraduate financial aid at Penn is available at www.sfs.upenn.edu.