ShareThisThe price of a private college education will rise less than it has in decades.
Nationwide, tuition and fees are 4.3 percent more than last year. That's the lowest bump since 1972, according to a survey of 350 schools by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
A survey released Sunday by the same group shows that more than three-quarters of the schools have also increased the financial aid they're offering students.
Colleges say they know the recession has strained families' finances, and they're doing something about it -- even if it means freezing salaries and making cuts.
"Private colleges are very aware of the economy we're in," said Brian Rosenberg, president of Macalester College in St. Paul. "Most are trying both to cut their expenses and provide more aid to students. "In the end, it's not an unhealthy exercise to go through."
Colleges do not always respond to recessions this way.
"Under normal circumstances, would I expect a recession to keep tuition increases low? No," said Donald Heller, director for the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State.
Recessions also take a big bite out of college budgets, he said, deflating endowments and squeezing donations. Because of that, "you would have expected them, all other things being equal, to turn around and raise tuition more. They've done it before.
"What's different this time is all the attention in the last few years on the cost of colleges," he said. "There's increased sensitivity."
Nationwide, 82.7 percent of responding institutions reported an increase in student aid applications for fall over last year, according to the survey.
It's one reason why these schools believe they've been able to retain and recruit students, despite concern that the effects of the economy would keep them away.
The same survey shows enrollment nationally is projected to hold steady.
This year's average increase of 4.8 percent still exceeds the 2008 Consumer Price Index of 3.8 percent, as well as the measure colleges prefer, the Higher Education Price Index (at 3.6 percent last year).
The majority of colleges' costs relate to the people they employ, including salaries and health care. To cut costs and keep tuition increases minimal, many Minnesota colleges have frozen pay, cut budgets and whittled travel, among other things.
"They're clearly weighing the need to make investments -- retaining faculty, keeping classes intimate, pressures that are hard to escape -- with the need to keep the price affordable," said John Manning, marketing and communications director for the Minnesota Private College Council.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Minneapolis Star Tribune
