Rising college tuition prices that forced students to take out massive boatloads of student loans during the recession may be coming to an end as tuition and fee increases slow down, according to a report released today by the College Board.
The Washington Post reports that tuition and fees increased by about 3% in the 2015-16 school year from the year before—like it had the two prior years also.
The average total cost of in-state tuition and fees that students paid at a four-year college and university for the fall semester came in at $9,410, a 2.9% increase after inflation. Compare that to a 9.5% increase in the 2009-10 school year.
The College Board report looked at tuition and fees at flagship state universities. The University of Wyoming came in as the cheapest for in-state students at $4,891 this semester with the University of Montana coming in second at $9,996. On the other side of the spectrum, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor was the most expensive for out-of-state students at $43,476 with the University of Virginia coming in second at $43,082.
The study found Louisiana had one of the highest increases in out-of-state tuition, 49%, from 2010-11 to 2014-2015, but still remained one of the cheapest states in the country in terms of out-of-state tuition.
Even with the small recent increases in fees and tuitions, students today still pay more than three times what students did 30 years ago.
Borrowing in the last several years has also slowed down, with students and parents borrowing $106 billion in 2014-15 to pay for college, down 6% from the previous year and dropping 16% from the high in 2010-11 when students and parents borrowed $124 billion.
This past legislative session, the Louisiana House killed a bill that would have allowed colleges and universities to set their own tuition, leaving the Pelican State as one of only three states in the country where the state legislature sets tuition. The bill had passed the Senate.
The Washington Post has the full story.
