University of Missouri System, McGraw-Hill Expand Access to Affordable Course Materials

Columbia, MO (March 5, 2018) – The University of Missouri System and learning science company McGraw-Hill today announced a new agreement that will increase student access to affordable course materials, lowering the cost of all McGraw-Hill electronic textbooks by an additional 38 percent to meet the University’s definition of low cost. McGraw-Hill will offer its entire higher education eBook catalog through the university’s AutoAccess program. The initial agreement gives students access to content purchased for five years.

"Adoption of free and affordable textbooks and course materials to reduce the cost of attendance for our students is a priority for us," UM System President Mun Choi said. "This partnership with McGraw-Hill is very innovative and timely. In addition to cost savings, this program will provide improved learning environment for our students."

Launched in 2014, the AutoAccess program is part of the university’s Affordable & Open Education Resources initiative and is a collaborative effort between the UM System Campus Stores, content publishers and faculty. EBooks available through AutoAccess can be accessed from the university’s learning management system. The materials are categorized under two tiers of discount options: "savings" or "low-cost." UM defines "low cost" materials as those that cost $40 or less.

"Because my professor made the choice to switch to lower cost or free textbooks, it saved me the burden of taking out another student loan this semester," said Jennifer Broyles, a junior from West Plains majoring in international business finance and French.

McGraw-Hill, UM System’s initial partner in launching AutoAccess, now becomes the first provider to offer its entire higher education eBook catalog through AutoAccess’s "low cost" option. The initiative will provide faculty with greater flexibility in adopting these low-cost materials in their courses. The program, which began with a single course section and 50 students, has now expanded to 300 courses, 700 sections and 40,000 students across the UM System’s four campuses. To date, students have saved approximately $9.7 million.

"McGraw-Hill has been a trusted partner to us since the launch of AutoAccess, and the new initiative is the first of its kind in terms of offering so many high-quality, low-cost digital resources at such wide scale," said Sherry Pollard, director at UM System Campus Stores. "We look forward to seeing the positive outcomes from this initiative and the wider adoption of AutoAccess across all four campuses."

"At McGraw-Hill, we are committed to providing affordable course solutions for all students, no matter who they are or how they take a course," said Bill Okun, president of higher education at McGraw-Hill. "We are excited to take our relationship with the University of Missouri System to the next level and support the University’s mission of improving access to high-quality, low-cost educational materials that help students succeed."

In the last two years, McGraw-Hill has increased the number of institutions it works with on Inclusive Access arrangements – now totaling more than 275.

The UM System continues to implement campus-wide initiatives to encourage the adoption of affordable options and open educational resources. In June 2017, the university also launched a task force on each of its campuses to raise awareness of the impact of high costs of educational materials on students, provide information about affordable and open education resources, and incentivize faculty to transition to such resources.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM

The University of Missouri was founded in Columbia in 1839. The university had a single campus until 1870, when the School of Mines and Metallurgy was established in Rolla. In the same year, the university assumed land-grant responsibilities of providing higher education opportunities for all citizens. In 1963, the university expanded by founding a new campus in St. Louis and acquiring the University of Kansas City, creating the present four-campus system. Today, the University of Missouri is one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive higher education institutions, with more than 72,000 students, a health care enterprise and a statewide extension program.