Some say there are two culprits that are responsible for colleges tuition cost increases. These two factors are:
1. The tenure system which bounds the colleges into unbreakable work contract. This means, once a college professor gets tenured only his or her death or voluntarily retirement can terminate the employment agreement between the college and the professor.
2. Matching retirement (TIAA-CREF) system. Colleges will match any retirement that a faculty member puts into his/her retirement account. For example, if a faculty member sets aside ten percent from his/her monthly salary into his/her retirement account, then the college is obliged to match that.
Supposed what people say above are true statements.
The above two policies work fine in the past when economic resources are available. However, when resources are tight, colleges may turn to the students to generate more income to keep the old system works. Or may be because of the binding contract, there is no place to escape from it. This might partially explain why colleges tuition keeps increasing. The end result is that students have to take more loans to keep point 1 and 2 above to work. The statement above may not be true for schools that have large amount of endowment fund, such as the Ivy League.
Update!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Association (https://www.aaea.us/) has completed a research on this topic. Based on the statistical analyses we found intrigue results. Please click here to read the whole article. Update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you guys think it is the time colleges need to think differently? Can colleges abandon the tenure system? If increase tuition meant to partially support point 1 and 2 above, should the students bear the burden by taking loans? Please write your comment below.