Presidents and trustees at private colleges are increasingly interested in assuaging student concerns about affordability by slashing sticker prices, with a surprisingly high number of colleges and universities in recent weeks announcing steep cuts to next year’s published tuition.
Between Sept. 5 and Sept. 15, at least eight colleges and universities announced such price cuts for next fall. While that’s a tiny percentage of the roughly 1,200 degree-granting private nonprofit institutions operating across the country, it’s also a significant number in comparison to recent years. Fewer than 30 colleges and universities put such price cuts in place in the dozen years between 2002 and 2014, according to the count of one consulting firm.
On the surface, the increasing popularity of price cuts -- called tuition resets in the world of college enrollment -- would seem to be a clear win for students and their families who have been squeezed for years by published tuition marching steadily higher. It would also seem a blow against colleges and universities, an acknowledgment of diminished pricing power and an admission they will have to charge students less.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/25/trustees-and-new-presidents-lead-push-tuition-resets-despite-debate-over-practices