Analyses

Analyses/Reports

Delta Project Data

The Delta Project has organized data on operating spending and revenues into aggregate measures of costs per student and costs per degree/certificate produced, organized into Carnegie classifications separating public and private nonprofit institutions.

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Delta Project Reports

Full Reports

Trends in College Spending

January 2009

Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?

The Growing Imbalance

April 2008

Recent trends in postsecondary education finance.

Issue Briefs & Advisories

Issue Brief #1: Who Pays for Higher Education?
Changing Patterns in Cost, Price, and Subsidies

January 2009 (PDF)

To understand why tuitions are increasing at institutions of higher education, policymakers need to look at the relationships between and among cost, price and subsidy. This brief explains how to understand those relationships, what the trend data show at a national level, places to go for more information, and questions to ask.

Issue Brief #2: Metrics for Improving Cost Accountability

February 2009 (PDF)

The funding squeeze facing much of American public higher education is neither short-term, nor small. To the contrary, the gaps between funding and the public need to increase access and degree attainment are large and growing. Meeting the educational requirements of the future will require new money, at a level that will not be forthcoming unless policymakers and the public are convinced that colleges and university leaders are serious about managing costs effectively.

Policy Advisory: Postsecondary Spending Priorities

February 2009 (PDF)

Policy Advisory to State Fiscal Policymakers on Postsecondary Education Spending Priorities for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

White Papers

What Does a College Degree Cost? Comparing Approaches to Measuring Cost Per Degree

By Nate Johnson

March 2009 (PDF)

This report describes different approaches to calculating what it costs colleges to graduate students with bachelor’s degrees.  The paper uses actual spending data from two public university systems to describe several ways to talk about the cost of bachelor’s degree education in different contexts.