College students pay more as subsidies drop - Stefanie Botelho, University Business

For the first time, students are paying, on average, half or more of their tuition’s cost. Subsidies for public higher ed institutions are the lowest in a decade—and for the first time, students are paying, on average, half or more of their tuition’s cost. Those are a few of the financial trends substantiated by a recent American Institutes for Research (AIR) study. According to “Trends in College Spending: 2001–2011,” a report by the Delta Cost Project at AIR, both public and government contributions to institutions continue to decrease. The study also showed that subsidies declined by 2 to 4 percent at public nonresearch institutions in 2011—an improvement over 2010, when declines averaged 8 percent or higher. However, public research universities suffered through a second year of 8 percent declines. http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/college-students-pay-more-subsidies-drop