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Wouldn’t that make things intransparent for the students and the universities/colleges would just raise the tuition? Universities already have problems getting

Wouldn’t that make things intransparent for the students and the universities/colleges would just raise the tuition? Universities already have problems getting journal access for reasonable prices. At least here in Germany textbooks are an oligopoly business so I don’t know if it’d be better. If the student has to get a textbook they can choose to buy it used or even copy relevant parts.

jjeaff 5y ago
Sure, the universities could raise tuition, but that wouldn't take away their incentive to save money on textbooks. I should add that this would work best if the university provides the books to the students and then takes them back at the end of the semester (of course charging for those damaged or not returned and with the option to keep and pay for it if you want to). This way, the same books can be reused for many semesters. Buying used or copying textbooks is becoming less and less viable as textbook publishers "bundle" required things like online access codes for quizzes that are one time use and only sold with the new book. These can't be copied or resold because they usually contain quizzes that are auto-graded and sent to the professor. Journal access is a different problem because the big journal aggregator companies seem to have a near monopoly. Most textbooks have quite a few options, even free options, because any professor anywhere can publish a textbook, and many actually do. The way textbooks work now, the people making the decision on which books or book bundles to go with have almost no skin in the game when it comes to price. So why not pick the Cadillac of textbooks Everytime. Or heck, just pick the textbook from the company with the slickest and biggest marketing budget. Right now, many professors switch to the newest edition every 2 years or so. Watch how much longer colleges keep using the old editions of college algebra when they are going to have to shell out the cash to buy new editions. I think the students probably won't miss out on all that new basic math that gets discovered every few years.
- bsder 5y ago
  > The way textbooks work now, the people making the decision on which books or book bundles to go with have almost no skin in the game when it comes to price. So why not pick the Cadillac of textbooks Everytime. Or heck, just pick the textbook from the company with the slickest and biggest marketing budget. This is absolutely NOT true of all professors. First, any book I would choose would ALWAYS have several copies (generally 3) in the library that I would immediately place on reserve (no checkout--4 hour usage in library only). If those copies don't exist, I make the department buy them immediately. I probably put any older editions on a lower tier of reserve (can check out but only for a day or two) as well. Second, if the book is remotely technical, it's going to be expensive no matter what I choose. Third, I may not have chosen the cheapest book if it is something that I firmly believe that you will need in your career. If I'm teaching algorithms, the book WILL be the latest version of CLRS--"Introduction to Algorithms" no matter how much cheaper or better I think another book will be as the extra material, support and later usefulness for that book VASTLY outweighs other considerations. Fourth, I generally try to point out in a slightly obscure fashion that there are some places to get the book that are not strictly speaking legal. Most professors of technical subjects generally try quite hard to not grind their students on textbooks. However, I'm not going to try to rationalize the content between 3 different versions of a textbook, either. If you want to use the Second Edition instead of the Third Edition, fine. However, if there is some mismatch between the two editions, that's up to the student to catch and compensate for, not me. Teaching your class is already 40 hours of time a week for me--which means I get paid about $8 an hour. I don't do this for the money. I'm teaching the class because I think you need someone non-academic to teach you occasionally.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    Of course, some professors try to be helpful to students. But of all my professors in 4 years, i probably averaged only one per semester that cared at all. There were actually probably several more that cared, but they were easily swayed by the campus bookstore's pressure to get the newest edition. The managers at the store don't own it, so they just want the easiest path, which is always newest edition. Because they can get them all sent in from one place and then send back any that don't sell. So the managers generally tell professors that they can't get old editions, which is a lie, and the professors just believe them.

jjeaff 5y ago

Sure, the universities could raise tuition, but that wouldn't take away their incentive to save money on textbooks. I should add that this would work best if the university provides the books to the students and then takes them back at the end of the semester (of course charging for those damaged or not returned and with the option to keep and pay for it if you want to). This way, the same books can be reused for many semesters. Buying used or copying textbooks is becoming less and less viable as textbook publishers "bundle" required things like online access codes for quizzes that are one time use and only sold with the new book. These can't be copied or resold because they usually contain quizzes that are auto-graded and sent to the professor. Journal access is a different problem because the big journal aggregator companies seem to have a near monopoly. Most textbooks have quite a few options, even free options, because any professor anywhere can publish a textbook, and many actually do. The way textbooks work now, the people making the decision on which books or book bundles to go with have almost no skin in the game when it comes to price. So why not pick the Cadillac of textbooks Everytime. Or heck, just pick the textbook from the company with the slickest and biggest marketing budget. Right now, many professors switch to the newest edition every 2 years or so. Watch how much longer colleges keep using the old editions of college algebra when they are going to have to shell out the cash to buy new editions. I think the students probably won't miss out on all that new basic math that gets discovered every few years.

bsder 5y ago
> The way textbooks work now, the people making the decision on which books or book bundles to go with have almost no skin in the game when it comes to price. So why not pick the Cadillac of textbooks Everytime. Or heck, just pick the textbook from the company with the slickest and biggest marketing budget. This is absolutely NOT true of all professors. First, any book I would choose would ALWAYS have several copies (generally 3) in the library that I would immediately place on reserve (no checkout--4 hour usage in library only). If those copies don't exist, I make the department buy them immediately. I probably put any older editions on a lower tier of reserve (can check out but only for a day or two) as well. Second, if the book is remotely technical, it's going to be expensive no matter what I choose. Third, I may not have chosen the cheapest book if it is something that I firmly believe that you will need in your career. If I'm teaching algorithms, the book WILL be the latest version of CLRS--"Introduction to Algorithms" no matter how much cheaper or better I think another book will be as the extra material, support and later usefulness for that book VASTLY outweighs other considerations. Fourth, I generally try to point out in a slightly obscure fashion that there are some places to get the book that are not strictly speaking legal. Most professors of technical subjects generally try quite hard to not grind their students on textbooks. However, I'm not going to try to rationalize the content between 3 different versions of a textbook, either. If you want to use the Second Edition instead of the Third Edition, fine. However, if there is some mismatch between the two editions, that's up to the student to catch and compensate for, not me. Teaching your class is already 40 hours of time a week for me--which means I get paid about $8 an hour. I don't do this for the money. I'm teaching the class because I think you need someone non-academic to teach you occasionally.
- jjeaff 5y ago
  Of course, some professors try to be helpful to students. But of all my professors in 4 years, i probably averaged only one per semester that cared at all. There were actually probably several more that cared, but they were easily swayed by the campus bookstore's pressure to get the newest edition. The managers at the store don't own it, so they just want the easiest path, which is always newest edition. Because they can get them all sent in from one place and then send back any that don't sell. So the managers generally tell professors that they can't get old editions, which is a lie, and the professors just believe them.