Analyses

Analyses/Reports

Delta Project Data

The Delta Project has organized data on operating spending and revenues into aggregate measures of costs per student and costs per degree/certificate produced, organized into Carnegie classifications separating public and private nonprofit institutions.

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Delta Project Reports

Full Reports

Trends in College Spending

January 2009

Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?

The Growing Imbalance

April 2008

Recent trends in postsecondary education finance.

Issue Briefs & Advisories

Issue Brief #1: Who Pays for Higher Education?
Changing Patterns in Cost, Price, and Subsidies

January 2009 (PDF)

To understand why tuitions are increasing at institutions of higher education, policymakers need to look at the relationships between and among cost, price and subsidy. This brief explains how to understand those relationships, what the trend data show at a national level, places to go for more information, and questions to ask.

Issue Brief #2: Metrics for Improving Cost Accountability

February 2009 (PDF)

The funding squeeze facing much of American public higher education is neither short-term, nor small. To the contrary, the gaps between funding and the public need to increase access and degree attainment are large and growing. Meeting the educational requirements of the future will require new money, at a level that will not be forthcoming unless policymakers and the public are convinced that colleges and university leaders are serious about managing costs effectively.

Policy Advisory: Postsecondary Spending Priorities

February 2009 (PDF)

Policy Advisory to State Fiscal Policymakers on Postsecondary Education Spending Priorities for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Policy Advisory: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom about Higher Ed Finance

August 2009 (PDF)

America faces a growing crisis in public postsecondary education, as an unprecedented fiscal meltdown plays out at a time of growing consensus about the urgent need to nearly double levels of degree attainment. Instead of taking steps to develop an investment strategy to reduce access and achievement gaps, we are moving in the opposite direction: reductions in state finances, increases in tuition, cutbacks in enrollments, and reductions in courses and programs students need to succeed.

White Papers

Calculating Cost-Return for Investments in Student Success

January 2010 (PDF) (calculator)

The Delta Cost Project has partnered with Jobs for the Future to release a report about the cost-return of student success programs, including a  calculator that allows programs to determine their own cost-return from increased student retention.

The Dreaded P Word: An Examination of Productivity in Public Postsecondary Education

By Patrick J. Kelly
July 2009 (PDF)
The topic of performance relative to funding (i.e. productivity) is one of the most strained conversations in postsecondary education. Those called on to support the enterprise — policymakers and business leaders — routinely ask productivity-related questions, just as they do of any other public entity that seeks their support. In return, postsecondary education leaders provide well-crafted but often unrelated responses. Understandably, they are trying to avoid the difficult question: Are we productive relative to what?

What Does a College Degree Cost? Comparing Approaches to Measuring Cost Per Degree

By Nate Johnson

March 2009 (PDF)

This report describes different approaches to calculating what it costs colleges to graduate students with bachelor’s degrees.  The paper uses actual spending data from two public university systems to describe several ways to talk about the cost of bachelor’s degree education in different contexts.