College Tuition Keeps Rising
Finally, many colleges say they are raising tuition to generate more money to hand back to students as financial aid, in part to make up for the federal government's reductions in programs like the Pell grant. But the College Board said that even after subtracting financial aid, the net cost of college has risen at least 2 percentage points faster than inflation over the past decade.
University officials say they are trying to rein in the costs of a degree. At Penn State, for example, administrators have lessened the course requirements for many majors to enable more students to graduate in four years. And many other schools are forming partnerships with former competitors to offer more classes to students, without increasing costs. Such moves are starting to have an effect, NAICU's Warren said, noting that the rate of tuition inflation over the past five years is the lowest it has been since 1980. "We are making considerable progress," he said. "If colleges weren't doing all these things, tuition would be rising at twice the rate it is."
Even with the rapidly rising cost of college, higher education still pays. The pay gap between those students who graduate from college and those whose education stops at high school continues to widen, the College Board said.
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