The average annual cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose 6.5 percent from last year, to $7,020, according to a report issued Tuesday by the College Board. Including room and board, the average total cost of attendance is $15,213, up 5.9 percent from last year.
Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, called the increases “hugely disappointing,” particularly in a period of low inflation. From July 2008 to July 2009, the Consumer Price Index declined 2.1 percent.
“Given the financial hardship of the country, it’s simply astonishing that colleges and universities would have this kind of increases,” Mr. Callan said. “It tells you that higher education is still a seller’s market. The level of debt we’re asking people to undertake is unsustainable.”
According to the College Board report, “Trends in College Pricing 2009,” average tuition and fees at public two-year colleges are $2,544, up 7.3 percent from the previous year. At for-profit colleges, annual tuition and fees average $14,171, a 6.5 percent rise. And for out-of-state students at four-year public universities, tuition and fees average $18,548, up 6.2 percent.
At private nonprofit universities, the average tuition and fees are $26,273, up 4.4 percent from last year.
Although grant aid also rose significantly in 2008-9, the latest year for which data are available, student borrowing — and the gap between available resources and the overall cost of attending college — continued to increase, the report said.
About two-thirds of full-time undergraduates receive grants, according to a companion College Board report also released Tuesday, “Trends in Student Aid 2009.”
Last year, the average grant aid was $5,041, supplemented by $4,585 in federal loans. Colleges and universities provided 41 percent of the grant aid, the federal government 32 percent, the states 11 percent and employers and other sources 32 percent.
The aid report found that public four-year colleges gave out two-thirds of their grant money as merit aid, that is, without considering the recipient’s financial need.
Sandy Baum, the College Board senior policy analyst who wrote both reports, said it was important to focus on the net price students actually paid, after subtracting grants and tax benefits, rather than the published tuition, or sticker price. And in that regard, Ms. Baum said, the situation looks far less dire. “Over all, it could have been worse,” she said.
“The really interesting thing to me,” she said, “is if you look at net prices students pay, considering the grant aid and tax benefits, students at public two-year institutions are actually paying less, in inflation-adjusted dollars. And that’s pretty significant. Even though the sticker price, adjusting for inflation, is up 20 percent in the past five years, the net price is actually lower than it was five years ago.”
In 2009-10, the report found, full-time students at private nonprofit four-year institutions receive about $14,400 in grant aid and federal tax benefits, reducing their net tuition and fees to about $11,900, from the published $26,300.
Full-time students at public four-year colleges and universities receive an estimated average of about $5,400 in grant aid and federal tax benefits, reducing their net tuition and fees to about $1,600, from the published $7,000. And full-time students at public two-year colleges get $3,000 in grant aid and tax benefits, enough to pay the average $2,500 tuition and fees, and still have $500 left toward living expenses.
Mr. Callan did not view the net costs as so easily manageable. “I have great respect for Sandy Baum,” he said, “and I’m sure the calculations are correct. But the assumptions in the report about financial aid to the average student are very, very optimistic — higher than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
While total education borrowing increased 5 percent from 2007-8 to 2008-9, the report said, there was a large shift to federal loans and away from private loans. Federal loans increased by about $15 billion last year, while nonfederal education loans declined by about half, to about $11 billion.
