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College tuition in the United States

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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.

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.[1] [2] [3]

File:CollegeTuitionsUsCanada1940to2000.png

Tuition at the University of Toronto tracked close to inflation rates during the entire period. [4] The University of Iowa had rapid increases in tuition during the 1950s and then tracked close to inflation rates since that time.[5] The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among the most expensive of the private U.S. educational institutions throughout the 20th century,[6] had continual large tuition increases, dipping slightly below inflation rates only during the World War II years.[7] [8]

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.[9] Other institutions in the same categories differ in details but not in general patterns.[10] 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.[11]

This 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.[12], 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.

File:CollegeTuitionsUsAverage1993to2004.png

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. In 2009, Temple University raised its tuition 2.9%, a historically low increase.

Hyperinflation of college costs

Hyperinflation refers to inflation in a particular economic sector that is substantially greater than inflation in general costs of living. Hyperinflation of medical costs in recent decades is well known. However hyperinflation of college tuition and fees exceeds that of medical costs.

The following graph shows the inflation rates of general costs of living (for urban consumers; the CPI-U), medical costs (medical costs component of the CPI), and college and tuition and fees for private four-year colleges (from College Board data) from 1978 to 2008. All rates are computed relative to 1978. [13]


"Excess inflation of college tuition illustrated"

Cost of living increased roughly 3-fold during this time; medical costs inflated roughly 6-fold; but college tuition and fees inflation approached 10-fold. Another way to say this is that whereas medical costs hyperinflated at twice the rate of cost-of-living, college tuition and fees hyperinflated at three times the rate of cost-of-living inflation. Thus, even after controlling for the effects of general inflation, 2008 college tuition and fees posed three times the burden as in 1978.

Economic and social concerns

Long term price trends make higher education an especially inflationary sector of the U.S. economy, with tuition increases in recent years sometimes outpacing even explosive health care sectors. [14] These trends are the sources of continuing controversy in the United States over costs of higher education[15] and their potential for limiting the country's achievements in democracy, fairness and social justice.[16] Today some companies offer tuition reimbursement to students.

Student loan debt

A closely related issue is the alarming increase in student borrowng to finance college education and resulting student loan debt. In the 2007-2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), the median cumulative debt among graduating 4-year undergraduate students was $19,999; one quarter borrowed $30,526 or more, and one tenth borrowed $44,668 or more [Source: http://www.finaid.org/loans/]. Students are unaware that this is a relatively new phenomenon; a generation ago students could easily pay for public universities without loans simply by taking a part-time job. Students today are arguably an exploited minority, being taken economic advantage of because they lack the historical perspective to appreciate the inequity. In any case, strong questions must be raised about placing young adults, who ought to be seen as be agents of change and progress, into society already burdened with debt and enmeshed in the status quo. Students are often forced to take unsatisficatory jobs immediately after graduation to repay loan debts. This potentially turns what should be the most creative and free segment of society into so many more wage slaves.

See also

References and notes

  1. ^ "Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor". Consumer Price Index.
  2. ^ Powell, James (2006). "Bank of Canada". A History of the Canadian Dollar.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Canadian Association of University Teachers". Education Review 4(1), Sept, 2002, p. 2, Table 1.
  5. ^ "University of Iowa". Fact Sheet, 2005.
  6. ^ For background on the emergence of MIT and other U.S. research universities, see Geiger, Roger L. (1986). To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900-1940. Oxford University Press.
  7. ^ "MIT Undergraduate Association". The Tech, 1994-2006.
  8. ^ "MIT Undergraduate Association". The Tech, Archives, 1881-2009.
  9. ^ Resident tuition rates are charted for public institutions; fees are averaged; nonresident rates are typically higher.
  10. ^ Note the qualitatively similar patterns in inflation-adjusted tuitions for three periods: 1940-1950, 1950-1980 and 1980-2000.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Education". Average institutional charges for tuition and required fees.
  13. ^ Data sources listed in Uebersax, John (2009-07-15). "College Tuition: Inflation or Hyperinflation?". Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  14. ^ Ehrenberg, Ronald G. (2002). Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much. Harvard University Press.
  15. ^ Kane, Thomas J. (1999). The Price of Admission: Rethinking How Americans Pay for College. Brookings Institution Press.
  16. ^ Bowen, William G., Tobin, Eugene M., Kurzweil, Martin A., and Pichler, Susanne C. (2005). Equity And Excellence In American Higher Education. University of Virginia Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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