Online programming has expanded greatly within higher education and much attention has been spent on public two year colleges (more commonly known as community colleges) and both private and public four year institutions. This research seeks to expand understanding of the small market of private not-for-profit two year colleges within the United…

Why does tuition increase faster than inflation? And why does tuition continue to increase even when states increase their investments in public colleges and universities? These questions have perplexed policymakers and higher education consumers alike. Though tuition setting can be very complicated, one of the drivers for rising costs is price…

In order to compare the price of things over time, it is necessary to use a price index to adjust for inflation. The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) and the Higher Education Cost Adjustment (HECA) were designed to more accurately account for the spending patterns of colleges and universities. However, there are some methodological problems…

Average resident undergraduate tuition and fees for the academic year 2013-14 at public two-year institutions in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) region (excluding California) increased by 3.2 percent ($106) from the previous year, while published prices at public four-year institutions grew by 3.1 percent ($231). By…

As concern over rapidly rising college costs and tuition sticker prices have increased, a variety of research has been conducted to determine potential causes. Most of this research has focused on factors unique to higher education. In contrast, cost disease theory attempts to create a comparative context to explain cost increases in higher…

President Obama is right to draw attention to the soaring cost of a college education in America. However, his proposed solution will not only fail to fix the problem but is also likely to compound it by blunting the competition that is needed to shake up the world of higher education. President Obama proposes to slow tuition growth by…

Students in China are being shouldered with more financial responsibility for their higher education. This shift impacts individuals across the economic spectrum in different ways. This paper assesses recent trends in China's higher education tuition and fees, and the implications on educational equity. Results document substantial increases in…

In this paper we review recent increases in tuition at public institutions and estimate impacts on enrollment. We use data on all U.S. public 4-year colleges and universities from 1991 to 2006 and illustrate that tuition increased dramatically beginning in the early part of this decade. We examine impacts of such increases on total enrollment and…

This issue of "Policy Insights" reviews the results from Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's (WICHE's) annual survey of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities in the region. The survey on which the report and this policy brief are based was administered to state higher education executive offices or system…

The tuition increase at the University of Florida--one of 11 public universities in Florida to win the approval of the state's Board of Governors to tack a "tuition differential" of 7 percent onto an 8 percent increase already approved by the state legislature--comes in response to an unprecedented reduction of some $340 million in state…

The fiscal benefits that community colleges bring to the local, state, and national economies have long been the province of anecdote, conjecture, and debate, but important new work has taken much of the mystery and guesswork out of this question. We now know that the rate of return delivered on tax dollars spent to support community colleges is…

To make online learning an integral part of higher education, institutions must determine the real costs of instruction and what tuition to charge based on these costs. Then the question is: Is this tuition bearable by the target population of potential students?

This report summarizes the tuition and fee rates Colorado public institutions of higher education charge to resident and nonresident students in Fiscal Year 10-11. While this report focuses on tuition and fee rates charged to undergraduate students, the attached summary tables provide greater detail and information for resident and nonresident…

How do colleges and universities spend their money? To most, it's a black box. The public looks at tuitions, states look at appropriations, trustees look at the endowment, and department managers look at their budgets. How colleges actually spend their money is barely understood by the general public and even many policy makers. In the current…

Higher education in the market economy is inevitable affected by the higher education market. The tuition of higher education in china had become the personal price performance of higher education in certain degrees and exerts some certain functions of price mechanism. Because the higher education market distortion that tuition pricing cannot…