NEWS
Paying for higher education at four-year public universities costs 47 percent more than it did a decade ago, according to a study released last week by the College Board.
The nonprofit New York-based organization used inflation-adjusted dollars to develop the annual report, but College Board officials said the poor condition of the economy and cuts in state appropriations might be the reasons for the increase.
"Whenever there was a decrease in appropriations, there was an increase in tuition average," said Jennifer Topiel, a spokeswoman for the College Board.
Tuition at private universities also has grown by 42 percent during the past year.
Topiel said more than 2,700 schools participated in the report by responding to surveys sent by the College Board.
She added that tuition has increased an average of 14.1 percent for the 2003-04 school year compared to last academic year, which is the highest one-year increase ever reported by the institution in the 27 years of the study, Topiel said.
David Byelich, director of the MSU Office of Planning and Budgets, said when adjusting to inflation, MSU's tuition has increased only 24.7 percent over the last decade, an average increase of 2.2 percent annually since the 1993-94 academic year.
Without adjusting for inflation, MSU's tuition rose by 57.3 percent over a 10-year period.
