基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was publsihed in 2000. Ehrenberg explores the causes of the 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.
Full Description
America's colleges and universities are the best in the world. They are also the most expensive. Tuition has risen faster than the rate of inflation for the past thirty years. There is 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 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, colleges and universities have little need to worry about rising tuitions, 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. Ehrenberg concludes by proposing a set of policies to slow the institutions' rising tuitions without damaging their quality.
Contents
Preface I. Setting the Stage 1. Why Do Costs Keep Rising at Selective Private Colleges and Universities? 2. Who Is in Charge of the University? II. Wealth and the Quest for Prestige 3. Endowment Policies, Development Policies, and the Color of Money 4. Undergraduate and Graduate Program Rankings 5. Admissions and Financial Aid Policies III. The Primacy of Science Over Economics 6. Why Relative Prices Don't Matter 7. Staying on the Cutting Edge in Science IV. The Faculty 8. Salaries 9. Tenure and the End of Mandatory Retirement V. Space 10. Deferred Maintenance, Space Planning, and Imperfect Information 11. The Costs of Space VI. Academic and Administrative Issues 12. Internal Transfer Prices 13. Enrollment Management 14. Information Technology, Libraries, and Distance Learning VII. The Nonacademic Infrastructure 15. Parking and Transportation 16. Cooling Systems VIII. Student Life 17. Intercollegiate Athletics and Gender Equity 18. Dining and Housing IX. Conclusion 19. Looking to the Future 20. A Final Thought Appendix. Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Retirement Plans Notes Acknowledgments Index
