Issue link: http://digital.corporatepress.com/i/186210
A P PA T H O U G H T L E A D E R S S E R I E S 2 0 1 3 The Rising Cost of Higher Education Including the Top Facilities Issues Section I: Executive Summary W hile many issues in higher education are only discussed among members of the education community, the sharp rise in costs is no longer a topic solely for academia. Parents and politicians alike are fuming over the apparently unstoppable climb of the cost of a college education. It seems every day a new magazine article or newspaper story bemoans the trend, attempts to explain it, or proposes a solution. A quick Internet search of one month's news stories with the keywords rising costs of higher education yielded more than 24,000 hits with headlines like "The True Cost of Rising Tuition," "Two-thirds of Pupils 'Alarmed' by Rising Cost of a Degree," and "Something Needs to Stop the Rising Cost of Education." Indeed, everyone seems to agree that something needs to quell the rising cost of higher education—the question is how. APPA chose to focus its entire 2013 Thought Leaders symposium on this very question. True to its position as a leader in the higher education facilities community, APPA considered the challenge from a facilities point of view, but also expanded its perspective to encompass the entire higher education system. Of course, there is no miraculous solution to the higher education cost problem. However, participants in the symposium proposed a mix of strategies that could be adapted to individual campuses and combined to make real strides. It will take innovative thinking and determination to challenge conventional thinking and educate consumers, yet with strong leadership and foresight, discerning institutions will be able to reinvent themselves for a future in which costs are no longer the leading story about higher education. The challenge of rising higher education costs Multiple trends and factors along with traditional or outdated ways of doing business have combined to create a perfect storm of cost inflation. These include the following: Declining state support High tuition discount rates A marked decrease in endowment returns Rapid changes in pedagogy that make it difficult for institutional facilities to keep up with teaching models and delivery systems to meet specific demands and needs of the private sector Continued demand for new and upgraded facilities to improve student and faculty recruitment and maximize school rankings Growing labor concerns, including an aging workforce, lack of flexibility in human resource policies and practices, and need for higher skill levels among technical staff Lack of incentives for improved faculty productivity Unexamined assumptions about spending, quality, competition, and budgeting Inefficient use of existing space The Thought Leaders participants proposed strategies for addressing these challenges that can essentially be grouped into the following categories: TLS 1