ANN ARBOR -- In a Glick Fieldhouse packed with some 4,000 students facing soaring loan debt and tuition costs, President Obama on Friday vowed to offer relief.

"Higher education is not a luxury," he told the crowd, many of whom camped out the night before in order to get a seat, on the campus of the University of Michigan. "It's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."

Obama, echoing many of the policies he touted in his State of the Union address earlier this week, laid out a plan he thinks will get that done.

He has shifted funds around to make more available for Pell grants and capped student loan payments at 10 percent of monthly income.

And he urged Congress to do their part.

"They need to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July," he said to raucous applause from students. "That's what's scheduled to happen if Congress doesn't act. That would not be good for you."

He was referring to subsidized federal Stafford loans, which are due to increase to more than 6 percent.

Obama called on Congress to extend a tuition tax credit, as well.

He also announced another Race to the Top competition, modeled after the one he and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan already held for public K-12 schools. This one will set aside $1 billion to incentivize states to bring tuition costs down.

"To become more efficient, to become more effective, but also make sure completion rates are going up at the same time," Duncan said in a one-on-one Friday morning with News 10. "We think there's tremendous creativity going on out there. We wanna shine a spotlight on those success stories."

Tuition, after all, has about doubled in the last two decades. UM and MSU both hiked their rates this past year by a little less than 7 percent.

Students here, many of them Obama supporters, said they're relieved that a plan's in place.

As one student said, "Anything that'll help lessen the burden over the next decade or so."