Local colleges and universities have increased their scholarship offerings by millions in recent years, an examination by this newspaper shows.

Miami University increased its scholarship offerings from $25.8 million in 2007 to around $44.5 million for the 2011-2012 school year, a 72 percent increase. Xavier University increased its offerings 73 percent in the same time period.

The increases have allowed more students afford to go to school during a time where colleges and universities have increased more than 6 percent in the past two years, officials said.

“Today’s top students, the best and the brightest, are the most difficult to attract because they have so many more options,” said Brent Shock, director of student financial assistance at Miami.

“To attract the best students you have to have a competitive scholarship package.”

And that trend is expected to increase, he said, as the admissions office recently set a goal to raise an addition $15 million in scholarship offerings.

More than 88 percent of all freshmen at private universities received scholarships to reduce their costs, according to a recent survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Federal surveys show 52 percent of all students at public universities receive scholarships or grants.

The recession has required that colleges and universities devote more time to fundraising to be able to keep up with demand, said Dawn Perrin, director of development at Cincinnati State, because some of the scholarship money is derived from interest income on endowments.

“We were still able to raise additional money even though the awards we were able to give from our endowments were lessened by the decline in interest income,” Perrin said. “But we also spread out the risk over 12 quarters, so that helps. We’ve been able to keep pace with donations to help with that.”

Factoring in financial aid, 14 percent of Ohio students pay no tuition and fees and an additional 10 percent pay less than $5,000 in tuition and fees to attend Miami’s Oxford campus in 2011-12, according to Miami University spokeswoman Claire Wagner.

“Since 2009, we’ve redesigned our scholarship awards process. Close to 70 percent of our incoming freshman class is getting some sort of institutional scholarship or grant,” Shock said.

Like Miami, 70 percent of Cincinnati State students need financial aid from the university to supplement federal grants and loans and their own contributions, “but we don’t have resources to give every one of them a scholarship,” she said. “We were able to give about 65 percent of the students who qualify.

“In 2010, we had a record number of applicants, 356, when it’s typically about 200.”

Miami University, too, has processed more applications. In 2007-08, 15,925 first-year students applied to Miami. By 2011-12, there were 18,482 applicants, but the number of admitted students remained steady at around 3,500.

“We’re starting to see that level off now as things improve,” Perrin said.

Randy Ulses, senior associate director of Student Financial Aid for the University of Cincinnati, said that some of the money that used to be classified as “non-needs based” have switched over to “needs based” because the financial situation of the students come into play.

“If two students are awarded the same scholarship based on merit, but one of them has financial need and the other doesn’t, those awards would be placed into different categories,” he said. “There’s been a rise in the incoming student population so we’ve had to increase the number and amounts of institutional grants and scholarships. In some cases they are showing more need because of the economy and there has been an increase in needs-based funds.”

In 2007-08, UC’s $22.9 million in institutional scholarships was evenly split between needs-based and non-needs-based disbursements. By 2011-12, needs-based giving totalled $17.4 million while non-needs-based had risen to $15.6 million.

Ulses said that universities try to be mindful of the money a student gets from other sources so that no one gets “over-scholarshiped.”

“We have to recognize both the merits of the academically talented students but also the needs of the entire student body, so we want to coordinate so that a student doesn’t end up with more scholarship money than they need to pay in tuition,” he said. “All of the institutions are trying to be good stewards of the money we’re given.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.