Oregon students pay disproportionately high tuition, hindering enrollment and depriving the economy of trained professionals in key sectors. The report on trends in state higher education enrollment and funding found that the Legislature’s overreliance on universities raising tuition to cover rising costs — rather than keeping up by making larger investments with state revenue — ends up hurting the economy. Unless tuition comes down and enrollment in postsecondary institutions goes up, the state will not have enough workers in fields such as health care and technology, and the state will struggle to compete for workers with other states, researchers found.
