The world is changing rapidly. With changes in technology, demographics, and workforce trends, Washington needs colleges to not only keep pace, but lead the way. Washington's 34 community and technical colleges answer that call. The community and technical colleges have proven uniquely positioned to adapt to, embrace, and ignite change. Community…

Analysis of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities in Virginia must include a discussion of the funding received from the General Assembly. The period covered by this report represents a particularly complicated scenario that impacted not just higher education but all entities that receive general fund tax dollars in Virginia. The…

This is a new report that combines the previous Annual Accountability Report and University Work Plans into a single document more closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This revised document will enhance the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by enabling comparisons between past goals…

The fiscal climate for institutions of higher education has changed dramatically in recent decades. Public and private colleges and universities have felt the squeeze of the economic downturn while many public institutions have experienced regular and significant declines in state appropriations. At the same time, families are being asked to pay…

A recent report by the College Board might be an indicator of how fast the sands of higher education are shifting. The prices that most people actually pay for college, which had remained stable for several years, are on the rise again, as tuition and other cost increases outpace financial aid awards. In its latest annual survey, the College Board…

Chapter 1: In response to tightened budgets and concerns about higher education costs, governments have introduced rules to limit the use of publicly funded aid, particularly at for-profit colleges. In this paper, we use an event study framework to estimate how tuition, enrollments, and loan use changed at for-profit colleges that became…

The authors of this article describe the effect that cost-cutting policies have had on community college student outcomes and how this has weakened the capacity of those colleges to produce returns to students and taxpayers. Many colleges are instituting reforms to help more students graduate with useful credentials. While these lower the cost per…

Using a critical discourse analysis, this research examines the coverage by Canada's two national English-language newspapers of the 2012 Quebec tuition protests. The goal was to uncover what relationships were formed and constituted by media when representing people challenging neo-liberal assumptions of payment for continuing education. The…

Researchers examined the impacts of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship program on academic and behavioral outcomes of students in grades 9-12 in Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS). The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship program offers college scholarships to graduating high school students in the KPS district. The percentage of tuition and fees covered is…

The United States tax code is full of provisions designed to encourage or reward specific behaviors, such as owning a home or saving for retirement. Tax benefits for higher education are no exception: Contributions to some college savings accounts grow tax-free, college tuition is often tax deductible, and some student-loan borrowers are able to…

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…

This study examines Finnish higher education students' perceptions of whether students are customers, based on qualitative interview data. The article contributes to the discussion on students as customers by giving attention to students' own voices from a country where tuition fees are not generally collected. The data are presented and analysed…

Families flummoxed about what college will cost them have more information at their disposal than ever before. The Internet offers tuition data, advice on saving and borrowing, and explanations of financial aid. New online calculators let families estimate their bottom-line price at any college. But not all the information out there is easy to…

When the author entered Columbia Law School in 1951, first-year tuition was $600--$5082.07 in today's money (according to the U.S. Department of Labor's CPI inflation calculator). Today (with some additional compulsory payments) it is over $50,000. How could this have happened? Law schools were once noted for providing inexpensive education, what…

Financial aid makes up the bulk of federal higher education spending, but do those dollars make a difference to needy students? A look at Federal Work-Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant allocations show that a disproportionate amount of funding goes to private universities with high tuition and low Federal Pell Grant…