Credit: Jack Westerheide | Design Editor

Starting this fall, Ohio State will cover the cost of tuition for Pell grant students. It was also announced Monday that the same will be done for students on regional campuses beginning Spring 2019.

The University will commit up to an additional $3 million to the Buckeye Opportunity Program hoping to benefit 1,200 students on regional campuses.

“Our campuses throughout Ohio are vital to the ways we provide ever-increasing access to an affordable and excellent Buckeye education,” President Michael Drake said in a statement.

Students eligible for this aid must be Pell students from Ohio, have completed a full semester and have taken or will be taking a survey course. A survey course is taken by all first-semester undergraduates and is “designed to help students assess their interests and plan their progress toward a degree.”

“Expanding our tuition-coverage program will help ensure even more Ohio families have the opportunity to advance their lives and communities through higher education,” Drake said.

Ohio State has now committed more than $100 million in additional need-based aid since 2015, which is well ahead of the Drake’s stated goal of reaching that number by 2020.