Private Nonprofit College Tuition to Rise 4.5% -- The Vedder Perspective

Below is what CCAP's Richard Vedder had to say to Inside Higher Ed about the latest National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities survey, which revealed that private nonprofit tuition will increase by an average of 4.5 percent in the coming academic year:

it’s notable that private colleges increased tuition above both a nationally-accepted rate of inflation (the Consumer Price Index) and HEPI. HEPI is often subject to critics – Vedder among them – who say that it shouldn’t be used as a benchmark for tuition, because it’s an index that increases based on what colleges spend – not necessarily the true costs they carry. If administrative salaries increase, for instance, HEPI goes up in tandem, regardless of whether those raises were reasonable or necessary

“If all schools increase their spending a lot from one year to the next, the HEPI tends to rise more than it otherwise would,”...“So the schools are creating their own alleged inflation and then they use that as an excuse to say ‘Oh our costs are going up so much.’ The cost of college is going up hardly at all, according to that index, but the tuition rates are [up] 4.5 percent. Why?”