America's elite colleges and universities are the best in the world. They are also the most expensive, with tuition rising faster than the rate of inflation over the past thirty years and no indication that this trend will abate.

Ronald G. Ehrenberg explores the causes of this tuition inflation, drawing on his many years as a teacher and researcher of the economics of higher education and as a senior administrator at Cornell University. Using incidents and examples from his own experience, he discusses a wide range of topics, including endowment policies, admissions and financial aid policies, the funding of research, tenure and the end of mandatory retirement, information technology, libraries and distance learning, student housing, and intercollegiate athletics.

He shows that elite colleges and universities, having multiple, relatively independent constituencies, suffer from ineffective central control of their costs. And in a fascinating analysis of their response to the ratings published by magazines such as U.S. News & World Report, he shows how they engage in a dysfunctional competition for students.

In the short run, these colleges and universities have little need to worry about rising tuition, since the number of qualified students applying for entrance is rising even faster. But in the long run, it is not at all clear that the increases can be sustained.

(20001027)

While Ehrenberg rambles on about the minutia of college finances, he never really explains why colleges' expenses rise at a much faster rate than other sectors of the economy. Many businesses must pay for transportation, cooling, and everything else that colleges do, do not have skyrocketing prices.

Tuition Rising does not ever mention the possibility that government financial aid programs have given universities the green light to spend excessively, since many students can get loans or grants to cover the cost increases. College costs are no longer subject to free-market economics, which generally causes prices to be low. In fact, Ehrenberg thinks the problem of college affordability can be alleviate with more federal financial aid!

This book is at best a boring compilation of college expenditures. Worse yet, Tuition Rising makes high tuition increases seem unavoidable, or even justified.

3 of 5 found the following review helpful:


Valuable Source of Information and Insight  Mar 19, 2006 By Wanda B. Red
Ronald Ehrenberg builds his analysis on his considerable experience as an economist and a senior administrator working in finance at Cornell University. He successfully manages to link his own practical experience in one school with larger issues facing higher education in general.

The title is a little misleading: The book is not only about tuition but about every source of revenue and every expense that a university or college faces. Ehrenberg thus presents a complex analysis, though in terms that any attentive reader can understand. This is no small achievement. The anecdotes of his experiences at Cornell really make this book fascinating to read, but do not rob it of its general applicability.

I've worked at an institution of higher education not that much different from Cornell for more than 20 years, and I learned a lot from reading this book. I'd like to give it to every member of the faculty and staff at my school so that they would understand better the constraints under which we all operate -- and have a healthier sense too of the challenges to come. Legislators and parents (and students too) ought to learn from it. It is going to take more than one constituency working together to fix the problem he describes.

Unlike another reviewer here, I did not see this book at all as an attempt to justify high college expenses but to explain them. Ehrenberg is very clear that many factors are to blame: from federal policies on financial aid and the reimbursement of indirect research expenses to recalcitrant faculty members who lack the will to cut anything from their budgets, from the increasingly popular college ratings game to local activists who distrust any activity the nonprofit-in-their midst undertakes. He even occasionally includes himself among the culprits. He writes about everything from the problematic combination of voluntary retirement and lifelong tenure to misconceptions about the cost of Title IX. The chapter on parking is alone worth the price of the book. Who knew how much a parking space costs to maintain each year? Read the book, and you will find out.

One myth that this book should explode is that universities are not competitive. Ehrenberg points out, accurately, that universities and colleges are in a kind of "arms race" for prestige and for the best students and faculty. There is not a sufficient brake of price pressure to rein in the increasing costs that this race involves. The price of a college education is also not well understood because of the effect of financial aid, and education is one of those sectors of the economy that is less able than others to take advantage of productivity gains. It will be interesting to see what comes in the years ahead as the pressure to reduce expenses in higher education grows. This book is an excellent place to start in understanding this challenge.

In looking toward the future, I do have one small criticism. This book was first published in 2000; it was revised and a new preface added in 2002. But most of the evidence and discussion is based on research from the 1990s. College finances are constantly changing, so there are some parts of the analysis that are dated. For example, US News and World Report has already altered some of the criteria that Ehrenberg criticizes here (e.g., the report of yield rates), so his analysis of the effects of the ratings is a little out of date. There are, I'm sure, other examples. I wish that he would revise it again, but perhaps that would be asking for a different book.

5 of 9 found the following review helpful:


High school counselor  Feb 12, 2001
As a high school guidance counselor I can see the immediate value of Mr. Ehrenberg's book. In fact, it is the best book on the subject which I have read. It should also be of tremendous value to parents of college bound children and to college administrators. The language is highly accessible and the author makes his points clearly and succinctly. This book is a welcome addition to the field, and perhaps the very best of its kind.

0 of 1 found the following review helpful:


A Solid Introduction to an Important Subset of U.S. Higher Education  Jun 19, 2010 By Richard B. Schwartz
This is both a scholarly and personal account of the much-discussed rise in college costs. The author is an economist, one of whose specialties is higher education. He has served as a senior administrator and (for a considerable period) faculty member at Cornell. Hence, his general observations and conclusions are complemented by more detailed accounts of the procedures in place at his home institution.

This is a useful way of proceeding, for universities are not anxious to share the specific details of their budgets and do not often explain the private negotiations (or maneuvers) that serve as the backdrop for their public actions.

The book is conservative in the sense that it is largely accepting of `the way things are', though it offers suggestions for efficiencies or more rational ways of proceeding at the margins. The principal cause of the rise in college costs is the academic `arms race' in which the top universities compete with one another for the best faculty, the best students, the best programs and the best facilities. That competition drives up costs. It is aided by certain forms of federal support, by plentiful endowments, dramatic developments in information technology, increased student applications and conscious policies (need-blind admissions, e.g.). The federal government is a player here, of course, with increased regulation, reduced coverage of indirect costs, Title IX and the prohibition of fixed retirement ages.

If one wants a general account of what has transpired since the early 70's, with some interesting details with regard to Cornell, this is a fine book. The author is aware, of course, that he is only describing a tiny subset of U.S. higher education, but it is that subset which often draws the most attention.

He does not address sensitive political issues and he does not address the common elements (which contribute to the rise of costs) across the spectrum of private institutions (though he does give some attention to public education, particularly those elements of public education which offer competition to the upper tier of institutions). There are many, many things which exist on college campuses which did not exist there in the 1950's or 1960's. Are they necessary? If not necessary, should they be high priorities? Would students/parents opt for them if given a choice?

There is virtually nothing on for-profit higher education, which avoids many of the costs that campuses incur. Is the difference in `experience' provided by traditional campuses worth the price? Is there some hybrid model that we should be considering?

8 of 14 found the following review helpful:


Ehrenberg Does It Again  Nov 01, 2000
This masterpiece represents Ehrenberg at his best and is, by far, the most important work of his illustrious and distinguished career. Mr. Ehrenberg's most recent work far supercedes previous works on the subjects of college costs and tuition. This book thoroughly explains why collge costs have risen expendentially over the past decade. Additionally, the text explains, in colorful and thoughtful detail, why (unlike their corporate counterparts)colleges cannot be run "efficiently" and/or cost-effectively. In sum, Ehrenberg's analysis and explanation of the rising cost of college tuition is a must read for all university administrators, academics, and parents preparing to send their children off to college.

See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com