Straight talk about college costs and prices : report of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education /

This National Commission, established under Public Law 105, was charged with examining factors related to the rising cost of higher education, identifying ways of stabilizing student tuition, determining the role government has played in raising costs and the role it might play in controlling them, determining the role financial aid has played in raising costs and its adequacy in the present environment, and suggesting ways to make institutions more accountable to the public. The Commission concluded that it was critical that people distinguish between the price of higher education (i.e., the amount charged students for their education) and its cost (i.e., the amount required to support college programs), but that both present critical problems. It recommended that institutions increase efforts to control costs and enhance productivity, provide more and better information about finance to consumers, and become more accountable to the general public. It encouraged government to deregulate higher education and asked Congress to continue to simplify existing student aid programs. This important book, which gathers in one place a wide array of statistics and analytical information about the finances of higher education, is highly recommended as a benchmark that will be referred to continuously as years pass. D. E. Williams; University of Akron