This article reports that the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), a widely used measure of colleges' costs, rose by 3.6 percent for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. But even as they reported the good news of that moderate increase, experts at the Commonfund Institute who maintain the index noted that broader economic trends could…

In 1992-93 the average total investment return for major college endowments was 13.1%, below most leading stock/bond indexes but well above the inflation rate for the period. Institutions that outperformed the average attributed success to investment in small and midsized U.S. companies and in foreign stocks and bonds. (MSE)