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It makes sense that public universities would become more expensive (because of state funding being cut), but what explains private universities raising their t

It makes sense that public universities would become more expensive (because of state funding being cut), but what explains private universities raising their tuition so much? http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76

HarryHirsch 13y ago
The stagnant NIH and NSF budget. High-end research is expensive, and the money to keep the place running has to come from somewhere. If it isn't from federal grants it has to come from tuition.
- maaku 13y ago
  This. I was part of a program managing NASA grants, mostly to universities. The University overhead was atrocious, in a few cases approaching 40%. Of course that's just how the industry works, which means grant agencies get accustomed to it and start giving out higher grants to compensate, and the subsidy increases. Sequestration must have hit universities hard.
- munin 13y ago
  what!? if universities can't have their research funded by grants, they just don't do the research. if a professors grant funding gets cut and he can't pay that grad student any more, they don't pay the grad student out of tuition funding, they just let them go.
  - HarryHirsch 13y ago
    This is what is happening right now in higher education, it is going through a structural change. MIT and Harvard will continue to be fine, at Purdue and Carnegie-Mellon they have to struggle a little harder, but they will be fine. Lesser places have no chance. I cannot see how they will deal with it. In my department 80 % of the undergraduates go up to medical school. Up to now, the deal was that you had to have some kind of research experience as an undergraduate to be accepted at a decent school, but this is going to change, as grant income is shrinking. No cash, no research, no honour's theses. The current plan is that they hired several new professors in a bid to get grant income, but this isn't going to succeed. Half of the full professors here have no grants. The social contract has always been that professors pull in grant money, that is what justifies their salary, as compared to teaching-only staff. But now they haven't got grants and won't get any ever, and you can't explain that to the taxpayer. I don't think anyone has a plan, going forward.
rmc 13y ago
Price is not always based only on cost, but also on prestige. People think more expensive things are worth more. Once the public universities cost more, then that means they must be better, right? Quick! Raise the rates for Harvard, we have to appear the best!

HarryHirsch 13y ago

The stagnant NIH and NSF budget. High-end research is expensive, and the money to keep the place running has to come from somewhere. If it isn't from federal grants it has to come from tuition.

maaku 13y ago
This. I was part of a program managing NASA grants, mostly to universities. The University overhead was atrocious, in a few cases approaching 40%. Of course that's just how the industry works, which means grant agencies get accustomed to it and start giving out higher grants to compensate, and the subsidy increases. Sequestration must have hit universities hard.
munin 13y ago
what!? if universities can't have their research funded by grants, they just don't do the research. if a professors grant funding gets cut and he can't pay that grad student any more, they don't pay the grad student out of tuition funding, they just let them go.
- HarryHirsch 13y ago
  This is what is happening right now in higher education, it is going through a structural change. MIT and Harvard will continue to be fine, at Purdue and Carnegie-Mellon they have to struggle a little harder, but they will be fine. Lesser places have no chance. I cannot see how they will deal with it. In my department 80 % of the undergraduates go up to medical school. Up to now, the deal was that you had to have some kind of research experience as an undergraduate to be accepted at a decent school, but this is going to change, as grant income is shrinking. No cash, no research, no honour's theses. The current plan is that they hired several new professors in a bid to get grant income, but this isn't going to succeed. Half of the full professors here have no grants. The social contract has always been that professors pull in grant money, that is what justifies their salary, as compared to teaching-only staff. But now they haven't got grants and won't get any ever, and you can't explain that to the taxpayer. I don't think anyone has a plan, going forward.

rmc 13y ago

Price is not always based only on cost, but also on prestige. People think more expensive things are worth more. Once the public universities cost more, then that means they must be better, right? Quick! Raise the rates for Harvard, we have to appear the best!