Survey finds jump in public college tuition and fees
Sees drop in grants to students who need aid the most
WASHINGTON -- Tuition and fees at four-year public colleges have soared an average of 14.1 percent in the last year, while the portion of financial aid going to the neediest students has dropped over the last decade, according to two reports released yesterday by the College Board.
For the current academic year, tuition at public colleges averaged $4,694, up almost $600 from the year before. At the University of Massachusetts, tuition and fees this fall increased 30 percent over last year, leaping from $5,750 for in-state undergraduates to $7,500.
The rate of tuition increase at four-year private colleges was 6 percent, with the average tuition now at $19,710 nationally and $25,093 at colleges in New England, the most expensive region in the country, the College Board reported in its annual "Trends in College Pricing" survey.
Gaston Caperton, College Board president, attributed the steep rise at public colleges to a shortfall in state budget appropriations for higher education. He said private colleges also have struggled to cope with higher costs for maintenance, salaries, and campus improvements, while funds available from endowments and fund-raising have shrunk.
"In a troubled economy, colleges are faced with holding down prices without sacrificing educational quality," Caperton told reporters. "And families are faced with the dilemma of increased college tuition while recognizing the increased value of a college education as a pathway to a better life."
Caperton stressed that the "net cost" of college, after scholarships, grants, and loans, is significantly lower than the published price of tuition; in 2002-2003, the most recent year of available data, the average grant was a $2,400 at public colleges and $7,300 per student at private colleges.
The rapid growth in financial aid, however, is not necessarily improving access to college for low-income students. According to the College Board, grants from colleges have increased 122 percent over the last decade, but an increasing proportion of that aid has been going to students who are not needy.
Caperton called it "a disheartening" development that creates a "deeply disturbing gap" in college access between upper-middle-income students and lower-income students.
College-sponsored grants -- close to $20 billion in 2002-2003 -- are tilting toward higher-income students because both public and private institutions are using scholarships to discount tuitions to compete for the most talented applicants or attract particular types of students, said Sandy Baum, a professor of economics at Skidmore College who anaylzes data for the College Board. According to "Trends in Student Aid, 2003," less than 10 percent of state grants were not based on need in 1991; by 2001, it was close to 25 percent.
The College Board surveys suggest a national, 10-year average increase in tuition and fees of 22 percent at community colleges, 47 percent at public colleges, and 42 percent at private schools, while the Consumer Price Index has climbed 28 percent over the decade.
In the last year alone, tuition and fees at all public institutions in Massachusetts, including community colleges, state colleges, and the University of Massachusetts campuses, rose an average 18.5 percent, from $3,554 to $4,212, said John Macuga, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.
State budget cuts have fallen hardest on UMass. "We have been forced to raise tuition and fees because of a sequence of appropriation reductions that have taken us from $483 million in fiscal year 2001 to $460 million in 2002 to $436 million in 2003, down to $355 million in the current fiscal year," said Robert Connolly, a UMass spokesman.
Caperton said that budget shortfalls across the nation have made this "an unusual year" and that he did not expect such dramatic tuition increases to become the norm.
Still, the College Board reports are likely to energize members of Congress who see the escalating cost of college tuition as a potent political issue with middle class voters and are vowing to use the reauthorization next year of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as a vehicle for mandating that colleges control costs. The act authorizes federal financial aid.
Representative John A. Boehner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said the College Board report confirmed there is a crisis in college tuition, but he faulted the nonprofit association, which adminsters SAT testing, for pointing out shortfalls in government aid but letting private colleges "off the hook" on how their administrators spend money.
"The bigger issue is whether institutions are accountable enough to parents, students, and taxpayers -- and clearly they are not," Boehner said in a statement.
Lawrence S. Bacow, president of Tufts University, said college administrators in the Boston area are forming purchasing pools to reduce their costs and are examining ways to cut spending on energy, library materials, and technology while increasing their private fund-raising. Tuition, fees, and room and board at the Medford campus this year rose from $36,465 to $38,270.
But Bacow said some other ways to save money -- increasing class sizes and the number of part-time faculty and reducing hands-on learning -- do not sit well with college consumers, the parents and students who he said also expect fancy dorms and state-of-the art athletic facilities. "People want these things, and we are responding in a very competitive market," Bacow said. 