College tuition

The term college tuition refers to fees which students have to pay to Colleges in the United States. Pay increases in the U.S. have caused chronic controversy since shortly after World War II. Except for its military academies, the U.S. national government does not directly support higher education. Instead it has offered programs of loans and grants, dating back to the Morrill Act during the U.S. Civil War and the "G.I. Bill" programs implemented after World War II. Developed countries whose national governments directly support higher education tend toward more moderate patterns of change in college tuitions and different forms of controversy.

Historical trends

The first chart compares standard undergraduate annual tuition and fees charged by major U.S. public, U.S. private and Canadian public 4-year college, showing both current U.S. dollars during the years from 1940 to 2000 and U.S. dollars adjusted to the year 2000 by using the U.S. Consumer Price Index series. [cite web | title=Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor | work=Consumer Price Index | url=http://www.bls.gov/cpi/] [cite web | title=Bank of Canada | first=James |last=Powell | publisher=A History of the Canadian Dollar | year=2006 | url=http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/dollar_book/index.html] [To show a wide range of tuitions, the chart's vertical axis is logarithmic. The span between two horizontal lines is a factor of ten.]

Tuition at the University of Toronto tracked close to inflation rates during the entire period. [cite web | title=Canadian Association of University Teachers | work=Education Review 4(1), Sept, 2002, p. 2, Table 1 | url=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-15.html] The University of Iowa had rapid increases in tuition during the 1950s and then tracked close to inflation rates since that time. [cite web | title=University of Iowa | work=Fact Sheet, 2005 | url=http://www.library.uni.edu/speccoll/unifacts.html ] The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among the most expensive of the private U.S. educational institutions throughout the 20th century, [For background on the emergence of MIT and other U.S. research universities, see cite book | first=Roger L. | last=Geiger | title=To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900-1940 | year=1986 | publisher=Oxford University Press] had continual large tuition increases, dipping slightly below inflation rates only during the World War II years. [cite web | title=MIT Undergraduate Association | work=The Tech, 1994-2006 | url=http://www-tech.mit.edu/] [cite web | title=MIT Undergraduate Association | work=The Tech, Archives, 1881-1994 | url=http://www-tech.mit.edu/archives/]

Over the 60-year period charted, the inflation-adjusted, long term, annual increases in tuition at these institutions were 0.4 percent for the University of Toronto, 1.4 percent for the University of Iowa, and 2.1 percent for MIT. [Resident tuition rates are charted for public institutions; fees are averaged; nonresident rates are typically higher.] Other institutions in the same categories differ in details but not in general patterns. [Note the qualitatively similar patterns in inflation-adjusted tuitions for three periods: 1940-1950, 1950-1980 and 1980-2000.] The results of the trends are that over the 60 years shown, adjusted for inflation, the tuition at the University of Iowa increased by a factor of 2.3 and that at MIT by a factor of 3.6, while tuition at the University of Toronto rose only about 30 percent. [After 1960, these patterns show gradually widening ratios of private-school to public-school tuition, but some public systems saw tuition increases similar to those of the 1950s in Iowa during different decades.]

Recent trends

The second chart compares average undergraduate tuition and fees charged by about 600 U.S. public and 1,350 U.S. private, non-profit 4-year colleges during years from 1993 through 2004. [cite web | title=National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Education | work=Average institutional charges for tuition and required fees | url=http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/result.asp?SrchKeyword=institutional+charges+for+tuition&topic=All] , both unadjusted and adjusted to the year 2004 by using the U.S. Consumer Price Index series. Data were not available for years 1994, 1995 and 1999.

During the 11-year period charted, both public and private, nonprofit colleges regularly posted tuition increases well above inflation rates. Peak increases for private colleges were in 1997, after the U.S. economy began booming growth. Peak increases for public colleges were in 2003, after state budgets supporting most of them were crimped by a sharp economic recession. Over this period, annual, inflation-adjusted tuition increases at public colleges averaged 4.0 percent, while those at private, non-profit colleges averaged 3.5 percent. Cumulative results over this period are average public tuitions growing 53 percent above inflation, and average private, nonprofit tuitions growing 47 percent above inflation. As of 2004, private, nonprofit colleges cost on average 3.3 times as much as public colleges attended by residents of their states.

Economic and social concerns

Long term price trends make higher education an inflationary sector of the U.S. economy, with tuition increases in recent years sometimes outpacing even explosive health care sectors. [cite book | first=Ronald G. | last=Ehrenberg | title=Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much | year=2002 | publisher=Harvard University Press] These trends are the sources of chronic controversy in the United States over costs of higher education [cite book | first=Thomas J. | last=Kane | title=The Price of Admission: Rethinking How Americans Pay for College | year=1999 | publisher=Brookings Institution Press] and their potential for limiting the country's achievements in democracy, fairness and social justice. [cite book | author=Bowen, William G., Tobin, Eugene M., Kurzweil, Martin A., and Pichler, Susanne C. | title=Equity And Excellence In American Higher Education | year=2005 | publisher=University of Virginia Press] Today some companies offer tuition reimbursement to students

ee also

*Private university
*Post-secondary education

External links

* [http://www.methodsreporter.com/2006/12/17/college-financial-aid/ "College costs hit working class hard"] - The Methods Reporter, December 17, 2006
* [http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS/606190339/1004 "Some In-State Students Out of Luck on Tuition", Jack Stripling, The Gainesville Sun, June 19, 2006]
* [http://blog.filife.com/financial-aid-price-wars-yale-fires-back/ "Financial Aid Price Wars"] FiLife.com, Jan 2008
* [http://www.soka.edu/uploaded/photos/events/TuitionPR0835.pdf "Soka University Announces New Tuition Policy - Tuition is free for admitted students whose families make $60,000 or less", March 5, 2008]

References and notes