Tuition May Exceed Inflation

For the eighth consecutive year, the costs of attending college are likely to rise faster than inflation, higher education officials said yesterday.

A sampling of several Ivy League schools' and other universities' financial plans for 1988-89 reveals tuition increases of 5 to 10 percent. Federal government spokesmen estimate that the inflation rate will be 4.3 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 1989.

Harvard will set its 1988-89 tuition rate in the next few weeks, university officials said yesterday.

The national tuition average "is going to be again a few points in excess of inflation," said Michael O'Keefe, president of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education. "The upward pressure on college costs is going to continue," he said.

O'Keefe attributed the increases to "shifts [in the facilities and resources] students are asking for, and that will go on." Such shifts "cost money," O'Keefe said.

Several of the nation's leading universities have already announced price hikes for the 1988-89 school year. Total charges at Columbia University will rise to $18,132, a 5 percent jump over last year's figure. The University of Chicago will raise its tuition by 6.7 percent to $12,930, Princeton will up its tuition by 6.6 percent to $13,380, and fees at Brown will increase by 6.9 percent to $13,375.

Greedy Colleges

In previous years, Education Secretary William J. Bennett has blasted the nation's colleges and universities for being "greedy" and for encouraging their students to apply for federal loans and grants to offset tuition hikes.

"I don't think there's any question that the colleges are being greedy," said Bruce M. Carnes, deputy undersecretary of education.

Carnes said that many colleges, such as Franklin and Marshall University, have been intentionally raising their tuitions "in order to travel in the elite crowd" of universities that demand high prices.

"Institutions always travel in packs, and so long as they all raise their prices by the same amount, then no one stands out," he said.

Carnes's comment follows in the wake of statements by David W. Breneman, president of Kalamazoo College, who last week charged that the nation's 100 most expensive and selective universities increase their tuitionsto maintain an elite status and thus enlarge theirapplicant pools.

"All of us are beginning to realize that tosome degree in this market, people judge qualityby price and that a low price at a private collegeis not necessarily a sign of good management,"Breneman told a conference on college costs inWashington.

However, several higher education authoritiesdisputed Carnes's assertion, saying that theincreasing college costs reflect a need to improvethe faculty salaries and the higher prices forlibrary materials. Since the prices of the goodsand services colleges and universities purchaseare generally higher than the nationwide ConsumerPrice Index, colleges have to charge highertuition rates, they said.

"A vast amount [of the tuition increases] is tomatch inflation affecting college costs," said D.Kent Halstead, an economist for ResearchAssociates, a Washington-based public policythink-tank. "Public schools certainly aren'tgreedy and a whole bunch of smaller privateuniversities have to raise tuition fees just tocover their costs."

"It has nothing to do with greed and it'sreally about time the Department of Educationlearned about college costs," said CharlesSaunders, vice-president for governmentalrelations for the American Council on Education.

Bennett and Carnes "have been trying to stir upcontroversy about the [college cost] issue, ratherthan understand it," O'Keefe said