Our Lady of the Lake University announced a new pathway for students to earn a tuition-free master’s degree in as little as one year starting this fall.
The No-Cost Master’s Program offers eligible OLLU students a free pathway to earning a master’s degree in the areas of business administration, cybersecurity, cybersecurity management, nonprofit management and social work.
“For generations, our university has innovated and expanded access to higher education for a higher purpose,” said Abel Chávez, president of OLLU. “Today, we take our commitment to our families one monumental step, by ensuring that access, completion, and advanced credentials are attainable and linked to meaningful livelihoods based on values.”
University officials are opening 30 spots for qualifying students who want to start in any of these graduate programs this fall, and can commit to completing a master’s degree in 12 to 18 months.
To qualify, students must have completed one of 34 eligible undergraduate degrees in four consecutive years and can immediately enroll in any of the five graduate degree pathways. They must also maintain a grade point average of at least 3.0 during their undergraduate and graduate programs, and have demonstrated financial need.
Alan Silva, provost and vice president for academic affairs at OLLU, said these initial 30 seats are a way to test students’ interest. They selected some of the most popular master’s degree plans that can be completed in 30 hours, he said, but the goal would be to expand the eligible graduate degree plans, as well as the number of seats over the next couple of years.
Students will have to cover the costs of books and some moderate fees. But the bulk of the cost will be absorbed by the university, Silva said, adding that these instructional costs will be absorbed into the university’s operating costs and covered in part by an increase in tuition that takes effect this fall.
Undergraduate tuition at OLLU is increasing for the 2026-27 academic year by about $40 per credit hour, resulting in an increase of about $622 per semester for students taking between 12 and 19 hours.
The private Catholic university, which serves a majority Hispanic, or Latino student population, is known as the birthplace of the Hispanic Serving Institution designation that most of the region’s universities now carry.
But over the years, student enrollment at OLLU has suffered. Last fall, counts showed about 1,800 total students had enrolled, a decrease of nearly 170 students since the fall of 2024, and close to 300 since the fall of 2023.
Last spring, university officials moved to cut over a dozen undergraduate degree programs as a result of a two-year evaluation examining student interest, Chávez said at the time.
Silva said this no-cost program is the next step in the realignment of OLLU’s offerings and pathways to figure out what isn’t working for students anymore and what could be built instead.
Growing this no-cost program will depend on student demand, success and on the institution’s ability to fundraise or absorb the cost, Silva said.
“Over time as we [look] to scale this up, um we would need to again look at our operating budget, what else could we do, how creative could we get. But we are also always looking for fundraising,” Silva said. “We’re looking for private donors who might want to invest in this and invest in the future of our students’ education.”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
