Changes In Tuition Research Articles

Does Tuition-Setting Authority Determine Whether Tuition Increases at Community Colleges with New Promise Programs?

ABSTRACT We evaluate whether the Bennett Hypothesis applies to local-level, single-institution promise programs and account for whether colleges have the authority to raise tuition, versus an external entity holding such authority. Using a sample of 29 community colleges affected by promise programs, we analyze changes in tuition across years 2001–02 to 2015–16 using two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences (DD) analyses, robust and weighted DD estimators, and panel event-studies. Among colleges with the sole authority to set their own tuition, the implementation of a promise program produces 14–17% lower tuition rates, suggesting that colleges do not strategically raise rates to capture promise-based financial aid dollars. When a governor or legislature is the sole entity that sets tuition, colleges experience negligible changes to slight declines in tuition levels, demonstrating that elected officials attempt to keep tuition rates stable or lower. When a statewide, systemwide, or local board retains tuition-setting authority, colleges observe no changes to tuition. Overall, our findings suggest a unique scenario for single-institution programs, where the college initiates or partners with a promise program; these colleges are motivated to keep tuition low to avoid counteracting affordability policies.

Diversity of PA cohorts during the evolution to an entry-level master's degree.

This study evaluated the racial and ethnic diversity of physician associate/assistant (PA) graduating cohorts during the profession's transition from a standard undergraduate degree to an entry-level master's degree. Using all existing program reports from the Physician Assistant Education Association (1985-2019), we explored potential associations between changes in tuition, degree types offered, and racial/ethnic makeup of graduating cohorts. We observed a strong negative association between Black students and graduates versus increasing tuition and the rise of master's level programs. More equitable opportunities for joining the PA profession may be needed.

Student Loan Debt Response to Tuition Changes

Amid rising concerns regarding student loan debt, we examine the effect of Washington State’s College Affordability Program introduced in 2015 on undergraduate student loan debt to provide policy-makers with additional tools to help prevent another student loan debt crisis. The program reduced tuition for resident full-time undergraduate students at public colleges and universities for two consecutive academic years. This policy adoption created a natural experiment that we exploit to identify a causal link between tuition and loans. Using college-level data for the 2009–2010 through 2021–2022 academic years and employing a difference-in-differences model in conjunction with nearest-neighbor matching, we show that a decrease in college tuition following the adoption of the College Affordability Program caused a $637.96 (9 percentage-point) decline in average loans among first-time, full-time undergraduates in Washington State relative to undergraduates from matched U.S. schools. JEL Codes: G28, I22

Financing and Enrollments in Public Universities

ABSTRACT State budget cuts have raised concerns about the disproportionate enrolment of out-of-state students. These students pay higher tuition fees at public universities. We investigate the decision-making of public universities about in-state and out-of-state enrolments by considering tuition rates as a financial incentive. We find that out-of-state enrolment is elastic, while in-state enrolment is relatively less elastic. Universities participating in reciprocity programs show that local student share is relatively insensitive to tuition changes; however, non-local student enrolments are more sensitive to these tuition changes. Overall, there is no evidence of the crowding-out effect on local student enrolment.

Veteran Educators or For‐Profiteers? Tuition Responses to Changes in the Post‐9/11 GI Bill

AbstractIn 2010, Congress reauthorized the Post‐9/11 GI Bill by changing reimbursement rates from by‐state maximums to a nationwide limit. This policy created exogenous variation in financial aid for veterans at private universities. We detect changes in tuition only for for‐profit colleges, where we estimate a 1 percent pass‐through rate. This response is mainly from states with decreased benefits; colleges with more veterans, and colleges whose pre‐change tuition was above the state maximum but below the new nationwide level had a pass‐through rate of 8 percent. We also find a negative association between changes in benefits and overall student enrollment for for‐profit colleges.

Initial Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physician Assistant Education.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted United States (US) health professions educational programs. Physician assistant (PA) programs were forced to respond to rapidly changing circumstances early in the pandemic. This study describes the impact that the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic had on PA programs in the United States. This cross-sectional study is based on data from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Report 1, conducted by the Physician Assistant Education Association in April 2020. The survey sample included 254 US PA program directors with a response rate of 64.2%. Our outcome measures included temporary changes to PA program operations and clinical training, and current and upcoming budget and tuition changes, as well as the impact of the pandemic on faculty and staff employment. We used descriptive statistics to summarize these outcomes, stratified by 4 categories characterizing features of PA programs, including geographical location, academic housing, funding model, and academic health center status. The COVID-19 pandemic impact on programs varied geographically. A majority of programs reported making numerous temporary changes to their operations. Most programs moved both didactic and clinical education to an online format. Clinical training was temporarily suspended at almost all programs. PA programs continued training despite the pandemic. The long-term impact of the pandemic may be the instability of the PA education workforce.

Trends and Effects of Privatization on Universities in Canada

With the rise of privatization of universities across Canada in the last decade, it has become increasingly important to understand its impact on students both financially and on the universities themselves. While many previous papers analyze trends or the benefits/disadvantages of privatization of public education, this paper focuses on trends of funding sources in universities, in particular, government spending, student tuition, increased private donations, and student loans. Specifically, this paper will delve into the trends over time, particularly focusing on the recent last two decades. 
 The main conclusion to be reached by this paper is a look at privatization through the lens of a decrease in government spending and increased presence of corporate sponsorship, changes in tuition, and changes in overall student debt. Using data from public sources as well as past papers and analyzing these have led to several conclusions. Public spending has decreased through reduced government spending as a percentage of operating revenue. This in turn has led universities to increase the need for other sources of funding, more notably, through tuition and private donations from individuals or corporations. Both these sources have increased as a source of funding overtime. Moreso, while domestically tuition has grown at a more or less normal rate, international student tuition has skyrocketed. Next, it has been shown that increased tuition has direct effects on student debt which has also been shown to increase overtime. Lastly, private donations and non-governmental grants from both individuals and corporations have increased significantly.

Estimating the Spillover Effects of the Tennessee Promise: Exploring Changes in Tuition, Fees, and Enrollment

Tuition-free college policies have gained momentum since the implementation of the Tennessee Promise, which provides financial aid to students pursuing two-year post-secondary degrees in Tennessee. While previous research has addressed the effects of similar programs on student outcomes, scholars have yet to thoroughly investigate potential spillover effects of Promise policies on colleges that are ineligible for Promise funds. In this paper, I leverage a difference-in-differences design to explore changes in enrollment and tuition and fees at institutions eligible and ineligible for Tennessee Promise funds. First, I find that in-state enrollment increased significantly at public Promise eligible institutions (mainly public two-year and technical colleges) and in-state enrollment decreased at public four-year colleges that are ineligible to receive Promise funds. Moreover, out-of-state enrollment increased at Promise ineligible public four-year colleges after the Promise was implemented. Second, I find that Black student enrollment declined by 1-2 percentage points at private colleges ineligible for Promise funds. Finally, public colleges eligible for Promise funds raised tuition after the Tennessee Promise was implemented. Together, these findings indicate that in the aftermath of the Tennessee Promise, there were significant changes in enrollment and tuition levels across institutions eligible and ineligible for Promise funds.

Estimating Tuition Elasticity of Student Enrollment: The Case of a Regional Comprehensive Master's Institution

This study examines the tuition elasticity of student enrollment for a public regional comprehensive master’s university, Pittsburg State University in Kansas. Tuition elasticity is a measure of the responsiveness of student enrollment decisions due to changes in tuition over time. This measure is useful as it indicates how changes in tuition policy will affect revenue. Using 32 years of institutional, state, and national data, elasticity measures are estimated for various cohorts of students, including freshmen, transfers, undergraduates and graduate students. The model controls for factors other than tuition that are also likely to influence enrollment, such as: the availability of scholarships, household income, the relative cost of alternative schools, the economic environment, and the pool of recent high school graduates. The results indicate that freshman students are more sensitive to changes in tuition than other undergraduate students in general – a one percent increase in tuition and fees is expected to result in a decrease in freshman enrollment of between 1.19 and 1.29 percent, holding all else constant. Both undergraduate transfer students and graduate students are found to be insensitive to increases in tuition and fees. These and other results are discussed relative to their policy implications for similar institutions contemplating increases in tuition.

Exploring the Effects of Tuition Increases on Racial/Ethnic Diversity at Public Colleges and Universities

As tuition becomes a more prominent tool to address financial challenges of colleges and universities, it is critically important to examine the implications of tuition increases on institutions and their students. The goal of this study is to examine the effects of tuition increases at public 4 year and community colleges on institutions’ racial/ethnic composition. The study addresses two primary research questions: What are the effects of tuition increases on racial/ethnic diversity at public institutions over time, and do the relationships between tuition increases and racial/ethnic diversity at 4 year institutions vary by institution selectivity? The study uses multivariate analyses with fixed effects models to estimate the relationship between observed changes in tuition and racial/ethnic diversity across U.S. public 4 and 2 year colleges and universities across a 14 year period. The standardized measure of institutional diversity we utilize allows us to consistently evaluate changes in overall racial/ethnic composition of enrolled students that enables comparisons across different institution types. Our findings suggest that tuition increases at open-access, non-selective public 4 year institutions are negatively and significantly associated with the racial/ethnic diversity of enrolled students. This same negative relationship can be seen among 2 year public institutions, and the effects are more pronounced in full-time, first-time freshmen as compared to the overall full-time campus population.

Should students be allowed to hold a demonstration in a university administration campus building?

The Community College of San Francisco made program cuts, tuition changes, layoffs, and pay cuts in 2012. In opposition to those actions, the Save CCSF Coalition formed. It consisted of a group of students, staff, faculty, and community members.

Students' College Preferences in Response to Tuition Changes

This paper studies the impact of changing tuition on students' preferences for college degrees. In particular, it analyzes the selective tuition policy changes for certain degrees in Australia in the 2000s. Using a logit discrete choice model, I find that while tuition increases discouraged students from choosing those degrees, the effect was small as the estimated price elasticity of students' preferences is low. The estimated responses are however heterogeneous across income groups; students in the lower socioeconomic groups are more responsive to tuition changes.

Born Under a Lucky Star: Financial Aid, College Completion, Labor Supply, and Credit Constraints

Higher education has experienced many changes since the 1970s, including an increase in the price of college, an increase in student employment during college, a decrease in college completion rates, and an increase in time to degree. This paper ties these trends together by causally linking changes in financial aid with time to degree and student employment during college. I find that additional financial aid accelerates graduation for university seniors because they increase credits attempted and reduce earnings while in college. In reaching this finding, I use administrative education and earnings data to examine a discrete change in the amount of federal financial aid available to financially independent students. The estimates in this paper imply that roughly 50 percent of the observed increase in time to degree can be explained by changes in tuition.

Paying for undergraduate business education: Recent trends in tuition, income, institution choice, and debt

ABSTRACTIn 1999–2000, business students borrowed substantially less to pay for their educations than nonbusiness students. By 2011–2012 this difference had disappeared. The authors describe changes in tuition, grants, incomes, and choice of institution type (public, private not-for-profit, or private for-profit) to help explain this observation. They find that an important determinant of whether a student will take debt and how much that student will take is the type of institution the student attended. The authors also find that business students were less likely to borrow than liberal arts and humanities majors in the earlier period, but not in the later period.

Estimating tuition elasticities of resident and non-resident enrolments at south-eastern public universities

ABSTRACTDue to increased reliance on tuition revenue, universities must be cognizant of the impacts tuition changes have on enrolment. In economics, the law of demand indicates that price increases (tuition) cause quantity demanded (enrolments) to decrease. The impacts of tuition increases on revenue depend on the magnitude of these two changes. The contribution of this article is the methodology used to control for competitor pricing in enrolment elasticity models. For resident enrolment, we included other in-state, 4-year public universities. For non-resident enrolment, we used weighting schemes based on enrolment patterns by school and by state to incorporate competitors’ tuition rates and relevant economic and demographic information. We applied these methodologies to universities in the south-eastern U.S. from 2003 to 2010. We found that tuition elasticities of both resident and non-resident enrolments at 4-year public universities varied from inelastic resident enrolments to elastic non-resident enrolments at the state level. In some cases, competitor pricing significantly impacted enrolments; in other cases, it did not. Across the full sample, 1% increase in resident tuition rates decreased enrolments by 0.3%. The techniques developed in this article can be used by individual universities or university systems to inform their strategies in setting tuition rates.

Modelling of regional higher education services market: microeconomics methodologіcal approach

This article presents the analysis of changes in education services market in recent years, when total number of freshmen decreased rapidly, that caused significant fall of income of many colleges and universities. Under such circumstances total revenues are proposed to be considered as a key parameter for maximizing from financial point of view in order to reach financial stability of colleges and universities. The model of kinked demand curve is applied to present situation of higher education services market in Ukraine. Instead of traditional for Ukraine accountant approach to calculation of tuition cost, calculation of changes in demand and total revenue are carried out on the basis of price elasticity of demand for higher education services. Relative index of price adjustment effectiveness is suggested to valuate impact of tuition changes on total revenues. Proposed models, analytical instruments and recommendations could help colleges and universities to maintain market share and their income base by means of scientifically based pricing strategy.

Status and Self-Presentational Pricing: How Status Affects Tuition of U.S. Colleges and Universities

This paper uses U.S. News & World Report annual rankings of nationally focused colleges and universities to examine the within-school effect of status on annual tuition changes from 2006 through 2012. We develop three hypotheses. (1) A focal school’s status—measured by USN rank and, alternatively, by network position in the college-applicant market—exerts a negative net effect on subsequent tuition, if tuition is equated with “sticker price.” This primary hypothesis draws from two complementary claims: on one hand, to the extent that a focal school’s status is low, it experiences “status anxiety” and prices higher either to raise its perceived worth either directly or to marshal the tangible resources necessary for status-ascent; on the other hand, when a chosen school’s status is high, it faces normative pressure to temper prices and thus more appear generous—a strategy for status maintenance. (2) A focal school’s financial endowment exerts a greater effect on financial aid and the total cost of student attendance than does status. This expectation reflects both the strategic nature of collegiate price-setting and the inability of status to induce cost advantages over a brief time-window. (3) The negative effect of the status of a focal school on published tuition increases with calendar time. This prediction is anchored in the ramifications of the financial crisis. Findings show support for each hypothesis, and implications for status theory are discussed.

Public subsidies, tuition, and public universities’ choices of undergraduate acceptance and retention rates in the USA

We model how public undergraduate universities alter acceptance and retention rates due to changes in tuition and enrollment-based subsidies. Per student subsidies differ for senior and freshman students, as is true in most states. The university accepts students from an applicant pool which is influenced by quality of education and the probability of completion, both of which are influenced by retention rates. The model predicts that changes in admission and retention rates depend on how the applicant pool changes with retention, whether or not net revenue from undergraduate education is positive, and differences between marginal revenue and marginal cost for senior students.

A detection model of college withdrawal

Many students during their college careers consider withdrawing from their respective college or university. Understanding why some students decide to withdraw yet others persist has implications for both the well being of students as well as for institutes of higher education. The present study develops a model of the decision to withdraw drawing on theories of voluntary employee turnover from organizational psychology and signal detection theory from the cognitive sciences. The model posits that precipitating events or shocks (e.g., changes in tuition) lead students to consider withdrawing from the university. If the evidence surpasses a criterion then the student decides to withdraw. The model was used to identify shocks students were sensitive to and to test hypotheses about the underlying decision process. The theoretical implications of this model in terms of understanding and predicting student withdrawal decisions and voluntary employee turnover decisions are discussed.

Evaluating Marginal Policy Changes and the Average Effect of Treatment for Individuals at the Margin

This paper develops methods for evaluating marginal policy changes. We characterize how the effects of marginal policy changes depend on the direction of the policy change, and show that marginal policy effects are fundamentally easier to identify and to estimate than conventional treatment parameters. We develop the connection between marginal policy effects and the average effect of treatment for persons on the margin of indifference between participation in treatment and nonparticipation, and use this connection to analyze both parameters. We apply our analysis to estimate the effect of marginal changes in tuition on the return to going to college.