Delta Cost Project Data
The Delta Cost Project makes data available in a number of different formats. The database that AIR uses to analyze trends and to produce reports and briefs can be accessed from the National Center for Education Statistics at http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/deltacostproject/.
In addition, AIR, along with Xcalibur, provides an interactive web-based data system that gives higher education stakeholders easy access to information on finance, performance, and enrollments for individual institutions, groups of institutions, or the nation. This can be accessed at http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx.
Delta Cost Project Reports
Delta Issue Briefs
Academic Spending Versus Athletic Spending: Who Wins?
January 2013
Athletics are big business on many college campuses, but does this come with a price tag? This issue brief looks at academic and athletic spending in NCAA Division I public universities between 2005 and 2010. Among a host of findings, this brief shows that the athletic departments of most public colleges and universities competing in NCAA Division I sports typically spend three to six times as much per athlete as their institutions spend to educate their students.
Delta Data Updates, 2000-2010
December 2012
This series of data briefs was developed by the Delta Cost Project at AIR using data from the IPEDS Analytics: Delta Cost Project Database 1987-2010, which was released on August 14, 2012, by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. The intent of these briefs is to update key tables and figures from Trends in College Spending: Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- College Spending in a Turbulent Decade (PDF) NEW
- Spending and Results: What Does the Money Buy? (PDF)
- Spending, Subsidies, and Tuition: Why Are Prices Going Up? What Are Tuitions Going to Pay For? (PDF)
- Spending: Where Does the Money Go? (PDF)
- Revenues: Where Does the Money Come From? (PDF)
Delta Perspectives
Climbing Walls and Climbing Tuitions (PDF)
December 2012
High-end amenities like rock climbing walls on college campuses have become an easy target for those attempting to explain rising tuitions. This Delta Perspective looks beyond the media attention surrounding these “frills” to examine more serious questions about spending on campus facilities, college spending in general, and the real drivers of rising tuitions.
Not Your Mother’s College Affordability Crisis (PDF)
December 2012
This short opinion piece examines the college affordability discussions of today and how they differ from the affordability concerns of past generations.
Postsecondary Student Attrition
October 2012
New Research from the Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research (AIR) addresses postsecondary costs resulting from student attrition and ways to measure and manage them.
- The Institutional Costs of Student Attrition (PDF)
- Measuring (and Managing) the Invisible Costs of Postsecondary Attrition(PDF)
- Attrition Cost Model Instruction Manual (PDF)
- Benchmarking Attrition: What Can We Learn From Other Industries? (PDF)
Trends in College Spending 1999-2009
September 2011
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- News Release (PDF)
- Report highlights (PDF)
- Full report (PDF)
Trends in College Spending 1998-2008
July 2010
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- Full Report (PDF)
- News Release (PDF)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trends in College Spending
January 2009
Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What does it buy?
- Full Report (PDF)
- Executive Summary (PDF)
- Presentation Summary (PDF)
- Recommendations for Action (PDF)
- Frequently Asked Questions
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.
The Growing Imbalance
April 2008Recent trends in postsecondary education finance.
- Full Report (PDF)