NAPLES, Fla. (WLFI) — Purdue President Mitch Daniels announced Saturday night the university would freeze tuition for the 9th straight year, holding it at 2012 levels through 2021-22.

Daniels also announced a 3% salary merit pool for West Lafayette employees beginning July 1.

It's the latest effort by the university to keep the price of a college education as low as possible. According to the university, 59% of Purdue West Lafayette students graduated debt-free in 2018-19, compared to 43% nationally. Debt per undergraduate student for 2019 was $3,558, which is down $1,900 since 2012.

This extension means seven graduating classes have earned their degrees without an increase in tuition.

The average borrower nationwide has nearly $33,000 in debt by the time they graduate. Student loan debt in the U.S. topped $1.56 trillion, according to numbers from the university. A graduating student from Indiana, who has lived on campus for four years, saved more than $12,000. An out-of-state student saved more than $31,000.

Enrollment at the West Lafayette campus reached more than 44,000 in 2020, its highest ever. Purdue reported more than 55,000 students applied for admission in the fall. The university offered enrollment to 2,200 more Indiana residents in 2019 than it did prior to freezing tuition. Undergraduate enrollment at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus includes more than 17,000 Indiana residents and more than 7,000 domestic minorities.

In addition to no tuition raises, room and board rates at Purdue's West Lafayette campus have seen no increase over the past eight years. In fact, room and board rates were decreased between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 years, and have not subsequently changed. The overall cost of room and board is lower for the 2020-21 year than it was in 2012-13. Those rates went from second most expensive in the Big Ten in 2012 to the most affordable (14th) in 2018.