Myers out as provost

[GGGG]

The feds will always be subsidizing loans.  Unless they somehow agree to go back to more grants.  Too many students (and parents) rely on those loans for education funding. 

[forgetful]

That which cannot go on forever, won't. At the compounding rate of tuition increases that's been observed over say, the last 13 years (since my freshman year), the "list price" is going to be so astronomical that no school can possibly have a chance of delivering commensurate value. So long as the feds are subsidizing the loans, the risk is exclusively borne by the borrower, not the school. Therefore, the schools have no incentive not to increase tuition to silly levels. They won't be the ones holding the bag.

And if that means the revenue increases are limited only by the institution not wanting to draw too much attention to their grift, that means the have every incentive in the world to increase their spending commensurately.

Believe me, Universities are extremely price conscious and are doing everything they can to remain both competitive in offering a high quality product, while trying to keep price down. 

Universities have a certain threshold (% of revenue from tuition) that they refuse to go above.  That has resulted in scaling back in many areas as they cannot raise tuition any further. 

There is one thing that never goes into any calculations as to revenue targets (from tuition etc.) and pricing decisions; namely "feds subsidizing loans".  It isn't even on the radar, essentially tuition increases are kept at the absolute minimum level to maintain a competitive product. 

Most increases have come from two aspects, expensive upgrades to facilities (and repairs to existing facilities) and increased regulations that have led to bloated and highly compensated administrators. These aspects are synonymous with trends in education at all levels (and healthcare for that matter), where costs have also skyrocketed.

[jficke13]

Believe me, Universities are extremely price conscious and are doing everything they can to remain both competitive in offering a high quality product, while trying to keep price down. 

Universities have a certain threshold (% of revenue from tuition) that they refuse to go above.  That has resulted in scaling back in many areas as they cannot raise tuition any further. 

There is one thing that never goes into any calculations as to revenue targets (from tuition etc.) and pricing decisions; namely "feds subsidizing loans".  It isn't even on the radar, essentially tuition increases are kept at the absolute minimum level to maintain a competitive product. 

Most increases have come from two aspects, expensive upgrades to facilities (and repairs to existing facilities) and increased regulations that have led to bloated and highly compensated administrators. These aspects are synonymous with trends in education at all levels (and healthcare for that matter), where costs have also skyrocketed.

If the fact that tuition has roughly doubled in aprx 15 years and that reflects the "absolute minimum level" of increases, higher education is screwed.  New parents would be looking at 100k/yr+ tuition bills in 18 years.

I think there's no incentive to keep tuition low, so it goes higher. So long as people are paying, why not increase it more? If I'm a bank and I give you a mortgage, but you default, I'm stuck bearing the associated loss. If I'm a school, and I make sure you get a student loan, and you don't pay it back, I've already been paid and it's someone else who gets stuck with the loss. Therefore, I have literally every incentive to charge as much as suckers will pay. Credit risk is borne by the feds and the borrower, not the school.

Eventually something will happen to provide a counterbalancing incentive, and then we'll see what the "absolute minimum level" of increases actually are.

[GGGG]

Tuition is a lot more price sensitive than you are suggesting.

[WarriorDad]

Apparently his Notre Dame pedigree didn't mesh with MU.  He was also a Wisconsin graduate.  Who does the hiring at MU?   

https://news.marquette.edu/news-releases/notre-dames-daniel-myers-named-marquettes-next-provost/