| Author(s): | Johnson, N. |
| Title: | Linking costs and postsecondary degrees: Key issues for policymakers |
| Source: | http://www.aei.org/docLib/Linking-Costs-and-Pos... |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Organization: | American Enterprise Institute |
| Short Description: | This report offers practical advice for decision-makers who are struggling to rein in college costs while improving productivity. The author provides a step-by-step guide to different approaches for calculating costs, highlights the tremendous variability in cost across programs within institutions, and documents some of the “hidden costs” of higher education. |
| Annotation: | As college costs and public expectations continue to grow in higher education, policymakers and institutional leaders have struggled with ways to cut spending while improving student success rates. However, outside of out-of-pocket costs to students and coarse college-level spending data, there is often little concrete guidance on what it actually costs to produce a college degree and how this information can be used to inform planning, policy, and reform. Given the tight fiscal environment, it is critical that policy makers have solid grasp on how to think about college costs and accountability so that they will be prepared to make important decisions about budget cuts and higher education policy in the years ahead. This report offers practical advice for decision-makers who are struggling to rein in college costs while improving productivity. The author provides a step-by-step guide to different approaches for calculating costs, highlights the tremendous variability in cost across programs within institutions, and documents some of the “hidden costs” of higher education. Rather than cut budgets across the board, as many cash-strapped schools have done, the author argues that budget decisions should be grounded in clear and reliable data that prioritize performance and productivity. |
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