Concordia University in St. Paul made news by cutting regular tuition costs by a hefty 33.7 percent–$10,000–leaving students to pay $19,700 if they receive no assistance or discounts.
But the reduction disguises a fact true at Concordia and at most every other private schools: up to half of undergraduates don’t pay the full fee. At Concordia, the "discount rate" ("the amount it gave in institutional grants, compared with gross tuition revenue") was 48 percent in 2011-2012. The article also notes that 99 percent of students that year received some grant or scholarship support from the school averaging $12,654.
This isn’t unusual. Right now, according to a report by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the national average for discounts was 43 percent last year. Given the bad publicity of rising tuition costs, combined with sagging enrollments, the report states that "this strategy is no longer working effectively at a large number of colleges and universities."
Cost, too, is no longer a guarantee of distinction. In the old days, a high tuition fee signalled a superior education. People thought that they got what they paid for. But, according to a higher ed cost expert in the story, all colleges charge a lot, and "There’s no advantage of charging more if you can afford to charge less."
We’ll see how many other colleges follow that advice.
