Rise in private college tuition at 31-year low

The price of a private college education will rise less than it has in decades.

Tuition and fees at Minnesota's private colleges and universities are up an average of 4.8 percent this year -- the smallest increase since 1978.

Same goes nationwide, where tuition and fees are 4.3 percent more than last year. That's the lowest bump since 1972, according to a survey of 350 schools by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

A survey released today by the same group shows that more than three-quarters of the schools have also increased the financial aid they're offering students.

Colleges say they know the recession has strained families' finances, and they're doing something about it -- even if it means freezing salaries and making cuts.

"Private colleges are very aware of the economy we're in," said Brian Rosenberg, president of Macalester College in St. Paul. "Most are trying both to cut their expenses and provide more aid to students.

"In the end, it's not an unhealthy exercise to go through."

Colleges do not always respond to recessions this way.

"Under normal circumstances, would I expect a recession to keep tuition increases low? No," said Donald Heller, director for the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State.

Recessions also take a big bite out of college budgets, he said, deflating endowments and squeezing donations. Because of that, "you would have expected them, all other things being equal, to turn around and raise tuition more. They've done it before.

"What's different this time is all the attention in the last few years on the cost of colleges," he said. "There's increased sensitivity."

A conversation about cost

This year's average tuition at Minnesota private, nonprofit colleges is $29,506 a year. Add in aid provided by colleges, the federal government and the state, and the average student will pay about half that amount.

At St. Catherine University in St. Paul, the coming year's tuition for daytime undergrads is up 4.95 percent, to $28,758, with no increase in fees. Total cost -- with room and board but without financial aid -- is $36,088.

It's the school's lowest tuition increase in seven years and reflects not only the recession, but "a mounting conversation for years now ... about our responsibility to manage the cost of higher education," said Brian Bruess, vice president of enrollment and dean of student affairs.

Nationwide, 82.7 percent of responding institutions reported an increase in student aid applications for fall over last year, according to the survey released today. St. Catherine University has bumped up the financial aid it provides new and returning students. Macalester has budgeted 12 percent more.

It's one reason why these schools believe they've been able to retain and recruit students, despite concern that the effects of the economy would keep them away.

"We are tracking ahead on almost every enrollment indicator," Bruess said, citing increased acceptances, deposits and students living on campus. "I really love the work that I do, but I never would have forecasted that."

The same survey shows enrollment nationally is projected to hold steady.

Macalester planned for 500 new students, as it has for several years. But now it projects 590. "More students said yes," Rosenberg said. "Plus, retention's higher than we would have predicted. It's very good news for us."

Still higher than inflation

Minnesota colleges' tuition increases have averaged 6.2 percent over the past decade.

This year's average increase of 4.8 percent still exceeds the 2008 Consumer Price Index of 3.8 percent, as well as the measure colleges prefer, the Higher Education Price Index (at 3.6 percent last year).

The majority of colleges' costs relate to the people they employ, including salaries and health care. To cut costs and keep tuition increases minimal, many Minnesota colleges have frozen pay, cut budgets and whittled travel, among other things.

"They're clearly weighing the need to make investments -- retaining faculty, keeping classes intimate, pressures that are hard to escape -- with the need to keep the price affordable," said John Manning, marketing and communications director for the Minnesota Private College Council.

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168