cost of getting a degree

“It’s hard to fathom what the impact of 10 million people in student loan default will have on college-going attitudes.” — from linkedin.com by Brandon Busteed

The rates of student loan non payment between April and June climbed sharply, so that 12.9 percent of debt is now subject to “serious delinquency,” according to new data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
…
Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit on Wednesday, which found the number of student loans transitioning into serious delinquency, or 90 days past due, rose “sharply” in the second quarter of 2025.

— Newsweek.com

1 in 2 graduates believe their college major didn’t prepare them for today’s market — from hrdive.com by Carolyn Crist
Respondents said they felt unprepared in numerous ways, especially finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances.

As today’s college graduates struggle to start a steady career, 1 in 2 Americans say their college major didn’t prepare them for the job market, according to a June 18 report from Preply.

Beyond that, 1 in 6 Americans who went to college said they regret it. When thinking about their college experience, college graduates said their top regrets included taking out student loans, not networking more and not doing internships.

College graduates said they felt unprepared in numerous ways, especially finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances.

From DSC:
The Career Placement Office at Northwestern University did not help build my skills to get a job, at all. I had no clue what I was doing. I had no idea what networking was even about, nor the power of it, and why it would be useful throughout my career. They provided conference rooms for interviews to occur…and that was about it, at least in my experience. In terms of my education, I didn’t get any real-world experience (such as apprenticeships, internships, capstone courses, etc.), nor did I pick up many practical or technical skills.

Driving Culture Change in Higher Education — from jeffselingo.com by Jeff Selingo

The call for transformation in higher education has never been louder, yet the path forward remains unclear for many institutions. Leaders often struggle with the “how” of meaningful change. This five-part playbook by higher education author and strategist Jeff Selingo as well as other experts draws on proven methodologies to provide clear, actionable guidance from mapping current institutional culture to sustaining long-term momentum.

Employers’ emphasis on skilled trades lost on Gen Z: Harris poll — from facilitiesdive.com
Young workers don’t realize going into the trades can offer good pay more quickly than pursuing a college-based career, the report says.

A mismatch exists between the importance employers are putting on skilled trades and how the generation that’s newly joining the workforce views those jobs, a Harris poll finds.

Gen Z, the oldest members of which are 28, is the age cohort least focused on skilled trades, in part because they’re misinformed about the jobs, says the report based on 2,200 respondents to survey questions posted online in June.

“Only 38% of Gen Z says skilled trades offer the best job opportunities today” and “only 36% strongly agree skilled trades offer a faster and more affordable path to a good career,” the report says.

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse [Niebuhr]

On 07/30/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse — from insidehighered.com by Robert Niebuhr; via George Siemens; I also think George’s excerpt (see below) gets right to the point.
Universities’ rush to embrace AI will lead to an untenable outcome, Robert Niebuhr writes.

Herein lies the trap. If students learn how to use AI to complete assignments and faculty use AI to design courses, assignments, and grade student work, then what is the value of higher education? How long until people dismiss the degree as an absurdly overpriced piece of paper? How long until that trickles down and influences our economic and cultural output? Simply put, can we afford a scenario where students pretend to learn and we pretend to teach them?

This next report doesn’t look too good for traditional institutions of higher education either:

No Country for Young Grads — from burningglassinstitute.org

For the first time in modern history, a bachelor’s degree is no longer a reliable path to professional employment. Recent graduates face rising unemployment and widespread underemployment as structural—not cyclical—forces reshape entry?level work. This new report identifies four interlocking drivers: an AI?powered “Expertise Upheaval” eliminating many junior tasks, a post?pandemic shift to lean staffing and risk?averse hiring, AI acting as an accelerant to these changes, and a growing graduate glut. As a result, young degree holders are uniquely seeing their prospects deteriorate – even as the rest of the economy remain robust. Read the full report to explore the data behind these trends.

The above article was via Brandon Busteed on LinkedIn:

What borrowers should know about student loan changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill [Turner]

On 07/27/2025, in change, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, parents/guardians, society, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

What borrowers should know about student loan changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill — from npr.org by Cory Turner

If you’re a federal student loan borrower or about to become one, your head may be spinning.

On July 4, when President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, he also greenlit a history-making overhaul of the federal student loan system — one that will affect the lives of many, if not most, of the United States’ nearly 43 million student loan borrowers.

And boy is it a lot to unpack, with new, tighter borrowing limits and dramatically reduced repayment options, to name just a few of the sweeping changes.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers in SAVE will have to change plans by July 1, 2028, when SAVE will be officially shut down. If they wait, though they currently can’t be required to make payments, they will see their loans explode with interest.

[Gifted article from NY Times] I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students. [O’Rourke]

On 07/24/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, colleges, communications, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, creativity, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, Open AI, pace of change, parents/guardians, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, vendors, writing, by Daniel Christian

I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students. — from nytimes.com by Meghan O’Rourke; this is a gifted article.

We need a coherent approach grounded in understanding how the technology works, where it is going and what it will be used for.

From DSC:
I almost feel like Meghan should right the words “this week” or “this month” after the above sentence. Whew! Things are moving fast.

For example, we’re now starting to see more agents hitting the scene — software that can DO things. But that can open up a can of worms too.

Students know the ground has shifted — and that the world outside the university expects them to shift with it. A.I. will be part of their lives regardless of whether we approve. Few issues expose the campus cultural gap as starkly as this one.ce

From DSC:
Universities and colleges have little choice but to integrate AI into their programs and offerings. There’s enough pressure on institutions of traditional higher education to prove their worth/value. Students and their families want solid ROI’s. Students know that they are going to need AI-related skills (see the link immediately below for example), or they are going to be left out of the competitive job search process.

A relevant resource here:

New Lightcast Report: AI Skills Command 28% Salary Premium as Demand Shifts Beyond Tech Industry — from lightcast.io; via Paul Fain
First-of-its-kind analysis reveals specific AI skills employers need most, enabling targeted workforce training strategies across all career areas

(Another gifted article) Michiganders in these 25 cities have the most student loan debt, ranking says [Smith]

On 05/20/2025, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, higher education, learning ecosystem, parents/guardians, society, student-related, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Michiganders in these 25 cities have the most student loan debt, ranking says — from mlive.com by Jackie Smith; this is a gifted article

Millions of former students and college graduates across the U.S. are weighed down with student loan debt, but with exactly how much may depend on where you live.

An analysis from WalletHub was released earlier this month, listing high averages student loan debts of residents in more than 2,500 American cities, including 83 in Michigan.

Student loans are the second highest form of household debt after mortgages, according to WalletHub, totaling more than $1.6 tillion, or averaging $38,000 per borrower.

The above article links to:

Cities with the Most & Least Student Debt (2025) — from wallethub.com by Adam McCann

High balances combined with a payoff timeline that lasts into middle age force many graduates to significantly delay or forgo other financial goals such as saving for retirement or buying a home. Paying back student loans has also become even more difficult due to high inflation putting a strain on Americans’ finances.

While we have a big student-loan crisis as a country, student-loan debts are more unsustainable in some places than others. To determine where borrowers are burdened the most, WalletHub compared the median student-loan balance against the median earnings of adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in more than 2,500 U.S. cities.

If you are considering borrowing money for college or you’re in danger of defaulting, we advise using a student loan calculator to determine an affordable payment amount and realistic payoff timeline.

Again, this graphic from 2009 comes to mind:
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Nearly half of Gen Z and millennials say college was a waste of money—AI has already made degrees obsolete — from fortune.com by Preston Fore

College is often advertised as the best four years of one’s life, but many Americans now have regrets.

More than a third of all graduates now say their degree was a “waste of money,” according to a new survey by Indeed. This frustration is especially pronounced among Gen Z, with 51% expressing remorse—compared to 41% of millennials and just 20% of baby boomers.

Overall, a growing share of college-educated workers are questioning the return on investment (ROI) of their degree, Kyle M.K., a career trend expert at Indeed, told Fortune. It’s something that’s not all too surprising considering that the average cost of a bachelor’s degree has doubled in the last two decades to over $38,000, and total student loan debt has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion.

“Another 38% feel student loans have limited their career growth more than their diploma has accelerated it,” M.K. said.

“AI won’t invalidate a solid education, but it will reward those who keep upgrading their toolkit.”

Average Cost of College & Tuition — from educationdata.org
Last Updated: March 8, 2025

Report Highlights. The average cost of college^* in the United States is $38,270 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses.

The average cost of college has more than doubled in the 21st century; the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of tuition is 4.04%.
The average in-state student attending a public 4-year institution and living on-campus spends $27,146 for one academic year.
The average cost of in-state tuition alone is $9,750; out-of-state tuition averages $28,386.
The average private, nonprofit university student spends $58,628 per academic year living on campus, $38,421 of it on tuition and fees.
Considering student loan interest and loss of income, investing in a bachelor’s degree can ultimately cost in excess of $500,000.

.

From DSC:
Reminds me of a graphic that Yohan Na and I created back in 2009:
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MOOC-Style Skills Training — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain
WGU and tech companies use Open edX for flexible online learning. Could community colleges be next?

Open Source for Affordable Online Reach
The online titan Western Governors University is experimenting with an open-source learning platform. So are Verizon and the Indian government. And the platform’s leaders want to help community colleges take the plunge on competency-based education.
…
The Open edX platform inherently supports self-paced learning and offers several features that make it a good fit for competency-based education and skills-forward learning, says Stephanie Khurana, Axim’s CEO.

“Flexible modalities and a focus on competence instead of time spent learning improves access and affordability for learners who balance work and life responsibilities alongside their education,” she says.

“Plus, being open source means institutions and organizations can collaborate to build and share CBE-specific tools and features,” she says, “which could lower costs and speed up innovation across the field.”

Axim thinks Open edX’s ability to scale affordably can support community colleges in reaching working learners across an underserved market.

Another ‘shock’ is coming for American jobs — from washingtonpost.com by Heather Long. DSC: This is a gifted article
Millions of workers will need to shift careers. Our country is unprepared.

The United States is on the cusp of a massive economic shift due to AI, and it’s likely to cause greater change than anything President Donald Trump does in his second term. Much good can come from AI, but the country is unprepared to grapple with the need for millions — or perhaps tens of millions — of workers to shift jobs and entire careers.

“There’s a massive risk that entry-level, white-collar work could get automated. What does that do to career ladders?” asked Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research has found the jobs of marketing analysts are five times as likely to be replaced as those of marketing managers, and sales representative jobs are three times as likely to be replaced as those of sales managers.

Young people working in these jobs will need to be retrained, but it will be hard for them to invest in new career paths. Consider that many college graduates already carry a lot of debt (an average of about $30,000 for those who took student loans).What’s more, the U.S. unemployment insurance system covers only about 57 percent of unemployed workers and replaces only a modest amount of someone’s pay.

From DSC:
This is another reason why I think this vision here is at least a part of our future. We need shorter, less expensive credentials.

People don’t have the time to get degrees that take 2+ years to complete (after they have already gone through college once).
They don’t want to come out with more debt on their backs.
With inflation going back up, they won’t have as much money anyway.
Also, they may already have enough debt on their backs.

Reflections on “2025 EDUCAUSE Students and Technology Report” [Christian]

On 04/14/2025, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, career development, CMS/LMS, colleges, communications, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

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2025 EDUCAUSE Students and Technology Report: Shaping the Future of Higher Education Through Technology, Flexibility, and Well-Being — from library.educause.edu

The student experience in higher education is continually evolving, influenced by technological advancements, shifting student needs and expectations, evolving workforce demands, and broadening sociocultural forces. In this year’s report, we examine six critical aspects of student experiences in higher education, providing insights into how institutions can adapt to meet student needs and enhance their learning experience and preparation for the workforce:

Satisfaction with Technology-Related Services and Supports
Modality Preferences
Hybrid Learning Experiences
Generative AI in the Classroom
Workforce Preparation
Accessibility and Mental Health

DSC: Shame on higher ed for not preparing students for the workplace (see below). You’re doing your students wrong…again. Not only do you continue to heap a load of debt on their backs, but you’re also continuing to not get them ready for the workplace. So don’t be surprised if eventually you’re replaced by a variety of alternatives that students will flock towards.
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DSC: And students don’t have a clue as to what awaits them in the workplace — they see AI-powered tools and technologies at an incredibly low score of only 3%. Yeh, right. You’ll find out. Here’s but one example from one discipline/field of work –> Thomson Reuters Survey: Over 95% of Legal Professionals Expect Gen AI to Become Central to Workflow Within Five Years

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Figure 15. Competency Areas Expected to Be Important for Career

Reflections on “Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change.” [Latham]

On 04/10/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Blockchain, bots, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, culture, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, Design Thinking, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, MBA, Michigan, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, pace of change, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

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Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change. — from chronicle.com by Scott Latham

Over the course of the next 10 years, AI-powered institutions will rise in the rankings. US News & World Report will factor a college’s AI capabilities into its calculations. Accrediting agencies will assess the degree of AI integration into pedagogy, research, and student life. Corporations will want to partner with universities that have demonstrated AI prowess. In short, we will see the emergence of the AI haves and have-nots.
…
What’s happening in higher education today has a name: creative destruction. The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term in 1942 to describe how innovation can transform industries. That typically happens when an industry has both a dysfunctional cost structure and a declining value proposition. Both are true of higher education.
…
Out of the gate, professors will work with technologists to get AI up to speed on specific disciplines and pedagogy. For example, AI could be “fed” course material on Greek history or finance and then, guided by human professors as they sort through the material, help AI understand the structure of the discipline, and then develop lectures, videos, supporting documentation, and assessments.
…
In the near future, if a student misses class, they will be able watch a recording that an AI bot captured. Or the AI bot will find a similar lecture from another professor at another accredited university. If you need tutoring, an AI bot will be ready to help any time, day or night. Similarly, if you are going on a trip and wish to take an exam on the plane, a student will be able to log on and complete the AI-designed and administered exam. Students will no longer be bound by a rigid class schedule. Instead, they will set the schedule that works for them.

Early and mid-career professors who hope to survive will need to adapt and learn how to work with AI. They will need to immerse themselves in research on AI and pedagogy and understand its effect on the classroom.

From DSC:
I had a very difficult time deciding which excerpts to include. There were so many more excerpts for us to think about with this solid article. While I don’t agree with several things in it, EVERY professor, president, dean, and administrator working within higher education today needs to read this article and seriously consider what Scott Latham is saying.

Change is already here, but according to Scott, we haven’t seen anything yet. I agree with him and, as a futurist, one has to consider the potential scenarios that Scott lays out for AI’s creative destruction of what higher education may look like. Scott asserts that some significant and upcoming impacts will be experienced by faculty members, doctoral students, and graduate/teaching assistants (and Teaching & Learning Centers and IT Departments, I would add). But he doesn’t stop there. He brings in presidents, deans, and other members of the leadership teams out there.

There are a few places where Scott and I differ.

The foremost one is the importance of the human element — i.e., the human faculty member and students’ learning preferences. I think many (most?) students and lifelong learners will want to learn from a human being. IBM abandoned their 5-year, $100M ed push last year and one of the key conclusions was that people want to learn from — and with — other people:

To be sure, AI can do sophisticated things such as generating quizzes from a class reading and editing student writing. But the idea that a machine or a chatbot can actually teach as a human can, he said, represents “a profound misunderstanding of what AI is actually capable of.”

Nitta, who still holds deep respect for the Watson lab, admits, “We missed something important. At the heart of education, at the heart of any learning, is engagement. And that’s kind of the Holy Grail.”

— Satya Nitta, a longtime computer researcher at
IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY
.

By the way, it isn’t easy for me to write this. As I wanted AI and other related technologies to be able to do just what IBM was hoping that it would be able to do.

Also, I would use the term learning preferences where Scott uses the term learning styles.

Scott also mentions:

“In addition, faculty members will need to become technologists as much as scholars. They will need to train AI in how to help them build lectures, assessments, and fine-tune their classroom materials. Further training will be needed when AI first delivers a course.”

It has been my experience from working with faculty members for over 20 years that not all faculty members want to become technologists. They may not have the time, interest, and/or aptitude to become one (and vice versa for technologists who likely won’t become faculty members).

That all said, Scott relays many things that I have reflected upon and relayed for years now via this Learning Ecosystems blog and also via The Learning from the Living [AI-Based Class] Room vision — the use of AI to offer personalized and job-relevant learning, the rising costs of higher education, the development of new learning-related offerings and credentials at far less expensive prices, the need to provide new business models and emerging technologies that are devoted more to lifelong learning, plus several other things.

So this article is definitely worth your time to read, especially if you are working in higher education or are considering a career therein!

Addendum later on 4/10/25:

U-M’s Ross School of Business, Google Public Sector launch virtual teaching assistant pilot program — from news.umich.edu by Jeff Karoub; via Paul Fain

Google Public Sector and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have launched an advanced Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program aimed at improving personalized learning and enlightening educators on artificial intelligence in the classroom.

The AI technology, aided by Google’s Gemini chatbot, provides students with all-hours access to support and self-directed learning. The Virtual TA represents the next generation of educational chatbots, serving as a sophisticated AI learning assistant that instructors can use to modify their specific lessons and teaching styles.

The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students, provides on-demand explanations of complex course concepts, guides them through problem-solving, and acts as a practice partner. It’s designed to foster critical thinking by never giving away answers, ensuring students actively work toward solutions.

Online higher education is projected to pass an impressive if little-noticed milestone this year [The Hechinger Report]

On 03/21/2025, in business side of he, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, leadership, new business models, online learning, parents/guardians, strategy, student-related, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Online higher education is projected to pass an impressive if little-noticed milestone this year: For the first time, more American college students will be learning entirely online than will be learning 100 percent in person.

Most college students are taking online classes, but they’re paying just as much as in-person students — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Rather than lowering the price, some universities use online courses to subsidize everything else

Online higher education is projected to pass an impressive if little-noticed milestone this year: For the first time, more American college students will be learning entirely online than will be learning 100 percent in person.

Bittner’s confusion about the price is widespread. Eighty percent of Americans think online learning after high school should cost less than in-person programs, according to a 2024 survey of 1,705 adults by New America.

Who does need college anymore? About that book title … — from Education Design Lab

As you may know, Lab founder Kathleen deLaski just published a book with a provocative title: Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won’t Matter.

Kathleen is asked about the title in every media interview, before and since the Feb. 25 book release. “It has generated a lot of questions,” she said in our recent book chat. “I tell people to focus on the word, ‘who.’ Who needs college anymore? That’s in keeping with the design thinking frame, where you look at the needs of individuals and what needs are not being met.”

In the same conversation, Kathleen reminded us that only 38% of American adults have a four-year degree. “We never talk about the path to the American dream for the rest of folks,” she said. “We currently are not supporting the other really interesting pathways to financial sustainability — apprenticeships, short-term credentials. And that’s really why I wrote the book, to push the conversation around the 62% of who we call New Majority Learners at the Lab, the people for whom college was not designed.” Watch the full clip

She distills the point into one sentence in this SmartBrief essay: “The new paradigm is a ‘yes and’ paradigm that embraces college and/or other pathways instead of college or bust.”

What can colleges do moving forward?
In this excellent Q&A with Inside Higher Ed, Kathleen shares her No. 1 suggestion: “College needs to be designed as a stepladder approach, where people can come in and out of it as they need, and at the very least, they can build earnings power along the way to help afford a degree program.”

In her Hechinger Report essay, Kathleen lists four more steps colleges can take to meet the demand for more choices, including “affordability must rule.”

From white-collar apprenticeships and micro-credential programs at local community colleges to online bootcamps, self-instruction using YouTube, and more—students are forging alternative paths to GREAT high-paying jobs. (source)

2025 College Hopes & Worries Survey Report [princetonreview.com]

On 03/12/2025, in assessment, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Emotion, funding / grants, higher education, learning ecosystem, parents/guardians, participation, society, student-related, United States, universities, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

2025 College Hopes & Worries Survey Report — from princetonreview.com
We surveyed 9,317 college applicants and parents about their dream schools and their biggest college admission and financial aid challenges.
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College operating costs rose 3.4% in fiscal 2024 [Unglesbee]

On 12/21/2024, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, higher education, learning ecosystem, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

College operating costs rose 3.4% in fiscal 2024 — from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee
Commonfund Institute’s latest Higher Education Price Index shows that cost spikes slowed — but that doesn’t make them any less painful.

Dive Brief:

Costs for operating a college rose 3.4% in fiscal 2024, according to the latest Higher Education Price Index from the Commonfund Institute.
The price increases outpaced Commonfund’s preliminary projections this spring of 3% for the year. However, the HEPI showed that inflation has slowed more than half a percentage point from fiscal 2023 and is down nearly 2 percentage points from 2022’s 5.2% inflation rate.
Utility prices and those for supplies and materials slowed the most significantly, after recent years of volatility in those areas. While costs for institutions are cooling, “there is an ongoing trend of inflation rates remaining elevated compared with the previous decade,” Commonfund said.

Speaking of higher education, also see:

25 Stats for 2025 — from insidehighered.com by Ashley Mowreader
Inside Higher Ed compiled two dozen–plus data points to help guide strategic decision-making and student success initiatives on college campuses.

Learning Ecosystems

MOOC-Style Skills Training [Fain]

College operating costs rose 3.4% in fiscal 2024 [Unglesbee]

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