Improving Data to Tackle the Higher Education "Cost Disease"

The "Great Recession" of 2008-2010 has brought a truly unprecedented level of financial chaos to U.S. higher education, exposing chronic fault lines in the system of financing that threaten national capacity to meet the future need for college graduates. This article examines the nature of the higher education "cost disease," distinguishing between how it manifests itself to the public and how it manifests itself within institutions. It concludes with the thesis that the symptoms of the disease, while perhaps not ultimately "curable," can be mitigated through better attention to cost management, including the development of regular, publicly transparent metrics about college costs. The example of the Delta Cost Project is presented as one approach to this, with examples of the types of work that are underway.